SUNDRE — The owner and staff of Murf’s Outdoor Equipment were still picking up the pieces and trying to evaluate their losses yesterday morning (Oct. 26) following an overnight break-in.
“I don’t know how much the damage is now,” said Michel Murphy, who works at the store, which is owned by her father, Darryl Murphy.
One of her father’s friends had called him earlier in the morning to inform them that, “our front window was laying in the parking lot,” she said.
The break-in is suspected to have occurred overnight between Sunday, Oct. 25 and Monday, Oct. 26 most likely between midnight and 5 a.m., she said.
“Pretty much all the chainsaws that we had on display have been taken,” she said, adding the building was also damaged in the process.
She said they were not sure roughly what the cost of the stolen goods and damaged property amounted to.
“We don’t quite know them numbers yet.”
However, the business is insured, she said, adding they would be contacting their provider once they had a chance to better assess the situation.
Among the priorities that morning was to first tarp up the window, and she said they were “in the process of just getting everything sealed back up here.”
Although they do not have a closed-circuit television video surveillance system, the building was protected by a motion sensor alarm. But the alarm failed to trigger as the thieves gained access through a blind spot, she explained.
“It was actually a dead spot, which is super unfortunate,” she said.
“We’ll evaluate everything going forward and see what’s our best option,” she added when asked if upgrades might be impending.
Looking for a silver lining in an otherwise lamentable way to start the week, she said the store had never before been broken into.
“This is our first time,” she said.
“It was a matter of time — you kind of know that when you have a business, it’s something that happens all too often now.”
In a press release, the Sundre RCMP reported responding to the break and enter.
“Thieves circumvented the installed physical security measures that the business owner had in place and stole several thousand dollars worth of chainsaws,” reads a portion of the statement issued by Sundre RCMP Cpl. Joe Mandel.
