Thief with 'good taste' leaves downtown Midland retailer feeling sour

No one likes to get woken up earlier than usual, but for Sue Canning, the telephone call meant she and her husband Glen would have to immediately head over to their King Street store.

Their security company had received a notification of an alarm at the back door and sure enough, a thief had broken into their downtown Midland shop, The Elegant Gourmet, which sells a range of gifts, drinks and specialty chocolates, candies and fudge.

And while no one was caught during an Easter Sunday break and enter in 2000, this time around the culprit was captured by police.

“He was there long enough to be caught,” Sue Canning tells MidlandToday. “He took some cash from the cash register and some fudge...so at least he has good taste."

A Southern Georgian Bay OPP spokesman says they will likely have a release relating to possible charges connected to the incident Friday.

Replacing the back door cost close to $1,000 to repair after it was destroyed during an incident involving local wildlife in 2003, so Canning expects the bill to come in a lot higher this time around.

As well, they’re losing “an entire day of production” during one of their busiest times of the year, something Canning hopes their insurance company takes into account.

“We don’t need this, especially six days before Christmas,” says Canning, who noted they’ve become disheartened with what they see as serious issues surrounding public safety in the downtown core.

According to Canning, people will be partying nearby at all hours and sleeping wherever they want, including a space near their back landing and adjacent areas.

“We’ve had to kick a few people out of there when we go out back,” she says, noting that finding sleeping bags and pieces of cardboard that homeless people are using for shelter has become a far too common occurrence over the past couple of years.

“They just kind of make themselves at home back there because they think nobody can see them. It scares the hell out of me and I was never scared of anything before,” says Canning, who was involved with the Downtown BIA for a number of years while her husband previously served on Midland council.

“It scares my staff and they don’t need to feel scared to come to work.”

A camera the Cannings installed to capture some of the goings-on was stolen not long after they installed it.

As well, she says she won’t go to the bank to make deposits over fears of who might be lurking in the branch’s vestibule where the ATM is located, a fear brought forward by a MidlandToday reader earlier this week.

Canning says something needs to be done to better help people feel safer when shopping downtown while also giving shopkeepers a greater sense of comfort.

“They (town and police) need to make the downtown safer. It’s hard enough to run a business and make a living."

And while this latest incident and the Easter Sunday break-in were eventful and disheartening for the Canning's, nothing quite compares to what occurred at their shop in 2003.

During one particular day, a deer bolted through their back door, crashed through the front door and then headed across the street where it smashed through the Spiker's Barber Shop window before coming across a larger mirror. From there, it panicked, turned around and headed out, according to Canning.

After becoming aware of the commotion, neighbour Dave Templeton followed the doe down King Street and watched it jump into Georgian Bay. He kept track of the frightened animal until it eventually found its way out of the water and ran into a forested area.

“We didn’t catch the deer, but we knew she was okay. All she had was a little cut on her head,” Canning says, noting that despite rambling through their shop that features a number of glass items, the only thing broken besides the doors was a small decoration.

“I still have it. We also still have the marks on the back where her hooves hit the wall."