Downtown ice cream shop feeling the love after break-in
By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on September 26, 2024.
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. 3
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