A clothing store in Portland, Oregon, has permanently closed due to rampant robbery and theft in the city, according to reports.
Marcy Landolfo runs a Rains PDX in Northeast Portland. This week marked the 15th break-in at her store within a year and a half.
Landolgo told KATU why she was closing the store ahead of the holiday shopping season, citing that repairs are getting expensive to the point that she just leaves the windows boarded up sometimes.
“It’s just too much with the losses that are not covered by insurance, the damages, everything. It’s just not sustainable,” she said. “The products that are being targeted are the very expensive winter products and I just felt like the minute I get those in the store they’re going to get stolen.”
The owner also expressed concern for her employees and said that she no longer sees this location as a viable business model.
“The products that are being targeted are the very expensive winter products and I just felt like the minute I get those in the store they’re going to get stolen,” she said. “The problem is, as small businesses, we cannot sustain those types of losses and stay in business. I won’t even go into the numbers of how much has been out of pocket.”
Meanwhile, Mayor Ted Wheeler’s office said that they’re working to increase funding for business repair grants through Prosper Portland, to which Landolfo said that it’s not enough.
“Paying for glass that’s great, but that is so surface and does nothing for the root cause of the problem, so it’s never going to change,” Landolfo said.
According to FBI special agent and former Navy SEAL Jonathan T. Gilliam, crime has surged to an all-time high across the U.S., thanks to the Biden administration’s “politicization of law enforcement.”
“I try to stay neutral when I look at these things and say that this is a reason or that’s a reason without the politics, but the reality is, and law enforcement is becoming more and more beholden to leftist mayors and governors and even the president,” Gilliam said during an interview on “Fox & Friends First” earlier this year.
