Rush In and Finish Cafe Proprietor Jukka Laurio surveys a cracked window and singed sign, Thursday, Jan. 21, 2016. The damage was done to his business when a gasoline filled jar was thrown at the builidng earlier this week.
(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)
January 21, 2016 - 2:04 PM
PENTICTON - It was business as usual at the Rush In and Finish Cafe in downtown Penticton today following what police describe as an arson attempt earlier this week.
Owner Jukka Laurio says the cafe on Westminister Avenue West is an apothecary and coffee shop which sells medicinal herbs and medical marijuana products including concentrates.
He doesn't know why someone tossed a gasoline filled jar at his business Tuesday night, Jan. 19.
“There are underground rumours, because there’s another person in the same kind of business, but they’ve got it in their home and their home got firebombed,” Laurio says. He says it wasn’t reported to police because the person who runs that operation didn’t want to go public.
“But myself, I’m public,” he says, adding he hasn’t received any threats due to his sales of marijuana products.
Laurio says he was upstairs at around 9:40 p.m. when he heard glass breaking.
“I looked out my window and the side of the building was on fire."
A window was cracked and a sign singed in the incident.
Laurio has been in business at the Westminster location for the past nine months.
To contact the reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad at sarstad@infonews.ca or call 250-488-3065. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.
News from © iNFOnews, 2016