Sakred Skin owner Denise Leigh shows off the damage two thieves caused shortly after midnight on Saturday, May 25th. (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By Adam Donnelly

PROPERTY CRIME

Downtown Kamloops tattoo shop owner frustrated after weekend break-in leaves her with hefty bill

May 28, 2024 | 5:30 PM

KAMLOOPS — Just before 12:30 a.m. on Saturday (May 25), a pair of thieves used a rock, likely procured from the nearby construction site, to break the front window at Sakred Skin Studio and gain access to the shop.

“When we came in that morning, that’s what we saw,” owner Denise Leigh explains. “The door was unlocked all night long, as well as the window being shattered.”

The crew at Sakred Skin came together to assess the damage and clean up the broken glass Saturday morning. After they took stock, they discovered the perpetrators made off with supplies and equipment, including a tattoo machine, worth more than $6,000. Without a power supply and the proper cartridges, the machine isn’t even operable.

“There’s no reason to take a tattoo machine that you can’t power on. There’s no reason to take masking tape. There’s no reason to take inks,” Leigh says. “There’s just no reason for it.”

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This is the second time since 2022 Sakred Skin has been the target of a break-in. These kinds of crimes have been plaguing downtown businesses for several years now. According to the local business improvement association, these kinds of incidents happen more frequently in areas closer to city hall.

“We’ll have a rash of break-ins and police often believe it’s an individual or a few individuals,” Downtown Kamloops Executive Director Howie Reimer explains. “It does seem to be crimes of opportunity and we do seem to get them in the west end of Victoria Street.”

Reimer explains that the City of Kamloops is trying to expand the Community Service Officer program to a 24/7 service, and police have been working with businesses in the area to help prevent these types of crimes. However, it could fall on business owners to hire private security to keep break-ins like this from occurring.

“Until we get some of those holistic changes at a much higher level, we do need some Band-aid solutions,” Reimer suggests. “That includes perhaps looking into private security.”

Image Credit: Denise Leigh/Sakred Skin

Leigh agrees that a more proactive approach is needed to address the issues that lead to these types of crimes. She suggests dealing with the root causes of the criminal behaviours.

“We need to stop pouring money into something that we can’t change,” Leigh explains. “We need to pour money into education and we need to stop this where it’s starting, and it’s starting in childhood. It’s starting where people don’t have the resources and funding that they need to make better choices in the future.”