A vandal caused a gas leak that closed down the Aberdeen Safeway Tuesday morning and led to the loss of refrigeration capability, prompting employees to clear out the fresh produce and the meat and dairy counters and suspend the sale of frozen food items before the freezers and refrigerators could be brought back on line in the afternoon.
Aberdeen Police were dispatched about 4:40 a.m. for an unknown person who had cut copper wiring to the gas lines on the roof of the Safeway. After discovering a gas leak, police and the Aberdeen Fire Department evacuated the store, established a perimeter and blocked K and M streets as a precaution.
“The Aberdeen Fire Department was called by the HVAC technician because of a natural gas leak found and gas leaking in the building,” said assistant fire chief Rich Malizia. “The on duty staff assisted with shutting off the gas meter, ventilating the building and establishing a safety perimeter until Cascade Natural Gas could be dispatched to the scene. We cleared after further gas readings by Cascade Gas confirmed the building was safe.”
According to store managers, a significant amount of vandalism had occurred on the roof of the store sometime overnight.
Aberdeen Police Lt. Kevin Darst said shortly after 2 p.m. Tuesday, “The briefing that I got said it was vandalism to the refrigeration units and just about everything on the roof. (The suspect) did break Freon lines and gas lines that went into the building.”
Police already had a suspect in custody early in the investigation. Officer George Kelley learned that many structures on the roof had also been damaged or destroyed, and after viewing surveillance video, saw a similarity between the known suspect and the vandal on tape.
“He has done this before and there has not been a real motive for him, just random vandalism,” said Darst. He said Aberdeen officers have had contact with the suspect in the past and one even had contact with him the night of the incident. Officers Loren Neil, Kelley and Sgt. Steve Timmons searched for the suspect; Neil eventually located him. The suspect was arrested and held for outstanding warrants and is expected to be arraigned on the vandalism charges including criminal sabotage, second degree burglary and malicious mischief Wednesday morning, when his name will become public record.
“The officers did a great job building the case against him,” said Darst.
The initial estimate for the damage alone to the Freon and gas lines is in excess of $100,000. With the addition of the loss of food inside the store, that number could balloon to well more than $250,000, though Darst stressed that is just a rough estimate as of Tuesday afternoon.
Patti Kennedy, the Safeway store manager who has been with the company for more than 40 years, was confident that things would be back to normal in her store sooner rather than later as the cooling system came back online shortly after 2 p.m.
“I’ve got 10,000 units of product coming in, and 25 employees from the Olympia area stores coming to help restock the shelves as the deliveries come in later today,” she said. “If you come in here tomorrow (Wednesday) around 11 a.m. you wouldn’t know there had ever been an issue.”
A meat counter employee was monitoring the shelf temperatures, saying at around 2:30 p.m. they were not yet at the right temperature to restock. However, Kennedy said meat cutters were already diving in to a shipment that arrived later Tuesday to restock what was lost earlier in the day as soon as possible. The Chinese food counter in the deli had food in it then, and racks of donuts could be seen behind the bakery counter; both departments were down earlier in the day. The total loss in frozen and perishable items was not yet known Tuesday afternoon.
