For the fifth time in a year, the windows of Thai Fusion in West Kelowna have been smashed by an unknown vandal.
Image Credit: Luke Sumpantarat
May 16, 2016 - 6:30 PM
WEST KELOWNA – After a six month break, the owner of Thai Fusion says the vandalism that plagued him last year has started again.
All the windows of Luke Sumpantarat’s restaurant in West Kelowna were smashed four separate times last year. Once, marbles were used. Then it was bricks, rocks and a baseball bat. One of the attacks was caught on video.
When Sumpantarat began speaking to the media last fall, the attacks stopped.
Just after midnight on April 26, however, the back windows of the Louie Drive restaurant were smashed out again by a masked man wielding a baseball bat.
“A car drove up to the back of the restaurant, one guy got out wearing a mask and carrying a baseball bat and a can of spray paint,” he says. “He graffittied the top part of the window and smashed in three bottom windows.”
Sumpantarat says the vandal spray painted something about a debt he supposedly owes.
“It’s something like ‘Pay what you owe’. He tried to make it seem like we owe them money but the only loan I have is to my mother and I’m pretty sure she wouldn’t do that,” he says with a laugh. “We don’t have any enemies that we know of.”
Sumpantarat has some suspicions who is behind the attacks but is giving RCMP time to investigate before he starts making accusations.
“I think (the suspect) is just trying to damage our reputation,” he says. “The intention is to make us look bad.”
He estimates the latest damage will cost between $1,500 and $2,000 to repair and altogether has spent tens of thousands of dollars replacing glass windows and a door.
RCMP have yet to comment on the status of the investigation.
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