A handful of businesses in the Mission Ridge Shopping Centre are picking up the pieces after they were broken into over the weekend.
Armella Gulley, executive director of St. Albert Further Education, said the business’ Mac computers were stolen from the second-floor unit at 86 McKenney Ave. between Friday evening and Saturday morning.
“We’re scrambling to try and get replacement computers. We can’t operate unless we have our computers,” she said. “It’s put us at a standstill.” She would not reveal the number of computers stolen.
Gulley said she does not believe any personal information was stored on the computers, which were used by business employees.
She said a few businesses were affected by the break-in, adding an employee from another business in the complex alerted her to the crime.
St. Albert Further Education has insurance, though Gulley said it will take at least three weeks to replace the computers as they are currently backordered.
“We produce the St. Albert Further Education course calendar, and the deadline for our ads coming in to us from our membership is (Wednesday), so we should be actually processing all of those right now,” she said, adding there is a backup copy of the course calendar.
The business also suffered extensive cabinet damage, which Gulley said was the result of being pried open.
Carol Smith, owner of Therassage Clinic Inc., said it appears as through the suspect or suspects attempted to break into her second-floor business, but failed.
“There’s screwdriver marks on our door,” she said, adding the same marks appear on the door to an empty unit down the hall from her.
She said St. Albert Yoga Centre was also broken into. Representatives from that business could not be reached by press time.
This is the second break-in in recent memory at Mission Ridge Shopping Centre.
Smith said there was another incident over a year ago, which prompted increased security measures, like putting metal plates on the doors and changing the locking mechanism to enter the building.
“We all get a little complacent and I think we’ve got to be more aware,” she said. “It’s the way the world is nowadays.”
RCMP could not be reached by press time.
Mission Ridge Shopping Centre is managed by Humford Management Inc. Melissa Hutchings, property manager, said the company had no comment.
