INDIANAPOLIS — Some locally owned businesses are just now starting to get back on their feet after being hit economically by the pandemic.
“2020 has been a rough year,” said Drew Allen, one of the owners of Taylor’s Bakery. We’re finally on our feet and something like this sets us back a bit."
Taylor’s Bakery said two of their three HVAC units were stolen and that they weren’t the only business impacted.
Right off of Allisonville Road is a strip were several businesses lay adjacent to Taylor’s Bakery. Allen said three of them were impacted.
“Two units on our roof, there was a unit on Dollar General, and two units on the north side of the building, it’s an empty office space right now,” Allen said.
He said he first noticed that the bakery felt a little warmer than usual last week.
“Last Tuesday, we recognized that the air conditioning wasn’t just quite holding the temperature it should be," he said. "And we went an additional day and noticed it was getting warmer and warmer. And then a repair man was working on Dollar General just north of us (two doors down) and said there had been an HVAC theft."
If you stand on the far east end of the parking lot, you can see one of the empty casings that once housed one of the missing HVAC units above Taylor’s Bakery.
Dollar General filed a police report on Thursday. And according to the police report filed with IMPD, Dollar General is not sure when the theft occurred but said their HVAC unit was stolen sometime over the last four months.
IMPD said it has not been notified of any other similar crimes in the area.
Allen said he has just one message for the culprits.
"What are you guys doing? Go get a job!" Allen said. "It pays more but by the time they scrap that out for copper, platinum, they're going to get a couple hundred bucks and they just caused tens of thousands of dollars' worth of damage. It’s awful, it’s awful."
Taylor’s Bakery continues to remain open for business and is able to continue to work with the remaining HVAC unit.
The Indianapolis staple said it’s currently working on trying to get the two stolen units replaced.