Store broken into twice in one day
Blue Sky Market was burglarized early in the morning of April 28 then again later that night.
By Noah Chavez
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BLUE RIVER, Oregon (KEZI) — The hunt is on for a group of thieves who broke into a beloved market in the McKenzie River Valley twice in the space of just a few days. Blue Sky Market was burglarized early in the morning of April 28 then again later that night.
The market is about an hour west of Eugene, and an hour and half west of Bend in Blue River. Usually there is little to no crime in that section of the McKenzie River Valley between Blue River and McKenzie Bridge. Store owner Balker “Sunny” Basi said in his time as store owner, there has never been a break-in like the two that his store had.
“It is bizarre, this usually doesn’t happen around here. It’s a really good community and very peaceful ’round here,” Basi said.
What appears to be teenagers were caught on camera breaking into the market not just once, but twice in the same day. The group of thieves threw a rock to smash open the front doors in both break-ins before targeting the items located behind the counter. Store manager Christina Pettner has been working at the market for 11 years. Pettner said that in all of her years working at the market, she has never encountered a situation like this.
“A rock had been thrown through the front door so I immediately panicked because the store opener didn’t know if there was still somebody inside or not,” Pettner said. “They had initially broken the right side of the door. We boarded that up, so they went through the left side of the door.”
Thousands of dollars in damage were done to the store with and a lot of the behind-the-counter items like vapes being stolen. Luckily, the register remained intact, and no money was taken. Pettner said she has a bad feeling that the group of thieves were not only teenagers, but locals as well.
“Maybe they got denied sale because they were underage, but I did worry about it being local and I’m really hoping that it’s not the case. It’s crossed my mind,” Pettner said.
With store break-ins, security cameras are a must in helping authorities find the suspects responsible for the break-ins. Fortunately at Blue Sky Market, their cameras were able to get clear footage of those thieves in action. Basi said their cameras were able to get a good look at the thieves who were ransacking the store.
“It’s pretty important, it’s the main key to finding these guys, the security camera is the main key,” Basi said. “They did make a mistake, so we got some images, some pretty clear images of their face on one of the guys. I think the sheriff’s already on it.”
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