NewsNation

Burglars tunnel into Portland shops, steal equipment and personal information

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Two men were caught on surveillance cameras crawling through a drywall tunnel and breaking into a Portland business last week, spending nearly 12 hours inside as they stole valuable equipment and customers’ personal information.

Jesse Richardson, the co-owner of The Brother’s Apothecary, said the “whole place was just completely destroyed” after thieves broke into the CBD tea shop on Sunday.


“He basically walked up to our doors here, broke through the glass, crawled in through one of the holes, basically destroying our office and stole a bunch of computer equipment, studio equipment sound equipment and tunneled through the drywall into our neighbor’s unit as well and burglarized their unit, too,” Richardson told NewsNation affiliate KOIN.

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Burglars tunneled into The Brothers Apothecary and an auto shop in Southeast Portland, February 21, 2021 (Courtesy: Jesse Richardson)

Surveillance cameras show a man crawling into the building just after 1 a.m. on February 21 and remaining inside until around 12:15 p.m.

“As soon as they got in, they kind of cased the area really quick. Found the circuit breaker, cut off the power, which did cut off some of our cameras. Then they proceed to turn this place inside out,” Richardson said. “There was broken glass, equipment everywhere, tons of paperwork stolen, personal information stolen. Our main office here was basically exploded.”

But it didn’t stop there.

Burglars tunneled into The Brothers Apothecary and an auto shop in Southeast Portland, February 21, 2021 (Courtesy: Jesse Richardson)

“They went into one of our production rooms where we make different bath products and actually ended up canaling through the wall and went into the auto shop next door and ended up burglarizing them pretty bad, maybe taking some vehicles and some equipment.”

The owner of the auto shop was unable to speak with NewsNation affiliate KOIN Tuesday night.

Now Richardson is asking for help from the community to identify the suspects.

“If anyone knows anything about the cars being taken, the equipment being taken, contact PPB and let them know,” he said.

The police report describes the suspects as:

Burglars tunneled into The Brothers Apothecary and an auto shop in Southeast Portland, February 21, 2021 (Courtesy: Jesse Richardson)

“Our main concern is helping get our neighbor get his stuff back. It would be great if we can get our stuff back, too.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact Portland police.