Downtown ice cream shop feeling the love after break-in
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 26, 2024.
Herald photos by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Members of the community show their support to Cookie Crimes Ice Creamery owners Riley and Diana Walburger on Wednesday minutes after they re-opened their store after being vandalized earlier this week.LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com
A locally owned and operated downtown business is feeling the love and support from the community after being vandalized earlier this week.
The owners of Cookie Crimes Ice Creamery were the victims of vandalism once again in the early hours of Monday morning when their front window was smashed and eight different people proceeded to entered their business to steal their property.
Riley Walburger, co-owner of Cookie Crimes, spoke Wednesday afternoon minutes after their doors were opened once again after the break-in.
“It’s been a very stressful week. This is not our first break in, this is our fourth since Boxing Day, so it’s been financially troubling and off course, it’s kind of a violation having people break in and steal your stuff, so there’s definitely some psychological challenges were having there,” said Walburger.
 He said that even though it has been very stressful, especially for his wife Diana, the stress levels are slowly coming down thanks to the outpouring of support from the community.
 “We’re really excited to be open today and hopefully drive up some revenue and recoup the cost of our window,” said Walburger.
 He said they also received a lot of support from the community during their previous break ins but this time is a little bit different.
“There was a post on Facebook that kind of went viral and we’ve been getting love-bombed for the last two days. Just constant messages of people asking if they can buy gift cards, we had somebody offered to order a large order of cookies for Calgary,” said Walburger.
 The post he referred to was posted on a local public group called “What’s Going On In Lethbridge” which has close to 30,000 members.
 The post reads in part, “I’m asking you my wonderful community, to give some extra support this week when their store re-opens on Wednesday.”
 And by the power of social media, right at 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday when Cookie Crimes opened up for business, there was a line out the door.
 “It’s really exciting to see and I’m not as worried about the finances anymore,” said Walburger.
He added that he hopes the support from the community would help his wife Diana feel better about the situation as she has been impacted emotionally by it.
“Monday night my wife came home, she had been in the store all day getting that window repaired and she just collapsed at the end of the day. She just couldn’t handle the stress,” said Walburger.
 He said she started to have doubts about the feasibility of their business, if it was the right fit for them and felt defeated to the point of not wanting to continue.
 “We’ve been open since May of 2022 and we just haven’t quite made it. I still work full-time in addition to helping produce ice cream at the store and we just had to keep talking each other up,” said Walburger.
 He explained that they have been each other’s support throughout their business adventure, but especially during hard times like this week.
 “When she’s not able to be the rock, I’m the rock. So, to see the support come in from the communities is huge. It’s validating for us that we’re doing something to help improve the community, make the community a happier place,” said Walburger.
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Sadly this has happened multiple times downtown with break and enters, property damage and owners and employees threatened and assaulted, yet maybe one in 200 or even 400 ever get reported in the news. When there are no charges laid against law breakers such as the ones who take over the streets around midnight, they run free and do as they please with no regard for anyone or anything. Many business owners downtown have had to deal with crimes against them or their property multiple times each. They never know what to expect when they come to work each day!
Time for a leadership change!!
have to agree. troubling as is this far too long standing issue, which appears to be getting worse, is that there is no real action taking place with regard to prevention and enforcement.
thus, either downtown fails ever the more, and/or, we end up with vigilantism as a desperate hail mary of a reaction. truly, no community with any decency and respect one for the other should be tolerating the degradation of the quality of life that is playing out here.
just a thought – what if lethbridge discontinued all its services that seem to most encourage a collection of offenders that enjoy undermining the health and safety and peace of others? might they then move up to calgary? moreover, why does the province not own this issue, rather than leave it to communities to take on a growing and increasingly costly and difficult to tackle issue? my guess is that ucp puts giving money away to big corp far more than spending money to look maintain a decent quality of life for the people that actually pay taxes..
Laws are put in place for the benefit of the offender, in hopes of rehabilitating them and to protect the victim. When law enforcement fails, all lose! The shelter is necessary because there are many homeless which have fallen on hard times due to some unforeseen situation, or just from being beaten down by life and need a reset. The high cost of housing is a big issue. We need to get the addicts and offenders off the streets into treatment, upgrade their education and get them into a job that will build their self esteem. I may be harsh many times in my comments, but I still have hope even for the criminals on the streets.
Law enforcement has failed them, the business owners and employees and the taxpayer. This falls on City Council, and the Police Chief and they must be held accountable, but instead try the old smoke and mirrors they have tried to play over the last 2 years!
When people are making $150,000 per year to lead or as in the Chief, over $225,000 per year and they do not listen to justifiable concerns and pleas, then it is time for them to go! The police budget is now over $50 million and for that, we want to see results downtown. When the criminals are bumped out of downtown by other gangs, they go to other areas of the city.
Our business community needs our support downtown, so please come and support us!
mental health needs to have supports. empty stomachs need food banks. however, criminals, and i am pointing to those that are serial offenders that infringe on the rights of others, need to be thwarted and that includes prevention as well as enforcement/justice. those inflicting violence on others, and those destroying the property of others are hardly being dealt with enough. for victims, there is hardly much in the way of any sense of justice. for society, there is hardly any sense of deterrence.
if only it was so easy to see the solution as drug rehab and more schooling. from what i feel i well understand, addictions are the symptom, the outcome, and the medication for significant trauma and fasd. while trauma may be addressed in a number of cases, fasd is not fixable. by and large, those hurt with fasd cannot be educated into what we would call productive members of society. they are most often impulsive and inconsistent. bad enough to have been ravaged before their first independent breath, but for society to put them to the streets as we do is inhumane. the brunt of those on the streets addicted to the worst synthetic drugs are likely fasd. those that are the most trauma affected are about as impulsive and inconsistent as many fasd affected. the primary difference is trauma may be alleviated, whereas fasd needs to be managed.
We need more mental health and treatment facilities and I know there used to be several group homes in the Calgary region for FASD patients, at varying levels but I am not familiar what is in the Lethbridge region. Many on the streets with issues could lead a reasonably normal life under the right treatment and medication if needed. We can do better!
yes – we can and we had best do better in order to be better.
Why is there no downtown curfew?! The police have drones, why aren’t they using them?
If a person isn’t walking to/from home, they shouldn’t be allowed to roam the city at night.
Curfews for adults unless it is a state of emergency would breach civil liberties laws, but I am not an expert. Under 16 years old perhaps. Your ideas still need the police on the ground patrolling. I know you are frustrated. Continue to stand for your business and your rights, and attend the meetings. That is the only way we will see change! Stand united!
Support your fellow businesses and if you haven’t had your ice cream cone recently, buy one, or two. We need to support each other!
My question is since it appears that downtown breakins and vandalism occur late at nite why is there not a designated police patrol of this relatively small area? There was a 4 hr gap from when the breakin occurred and the owners discovered it. This allowed not only the 2 perps to steal goods but was enough time for at least 6 other individuals to do the same. Certainly a regular police patrol of the area may have prevented this initial breakin but likely the following thefts. Looks like our politicians would rather throw away taxpayers money on beautification of these crooks home base (Galt Gardens) then protecting taxpayer’s property. I wouldn’t be surprised or blame a business owner if they staked out their property and took matters into their own hands. This is what it’s come to. George
The frustration has been building for the last year. The police says ‘let’s have another Town Hall and discuss this. How many Town Halls does it take to see action? Our leadership is deaf to the concerns of taxpayers and they keep on saying, it is happening in Calgary and Edmonton worse. Calgary is 1. 5 million people, Edmonton 1.09 million. How can you compare to cities that have always had major crime issues for decades? Taking matters into your own hands will only get you charged, while the criminals walk away free. When leaders don’t listen, they get replaced. We saw this recently in the last election when some knew they were not going to get re-elected and walked away. The business community is banding together now and change is on the way. They now know they have to unite and fill city hall to get change. What happened at the Police Commission on Wednesday has been noted by those who witnessed censorship, as the group was silenced before all could speak. Is a Chief allowed to tell the Chairman of the commission how to conduct the meeting? Censorship appears to run rampid in this city.