When vandals broke into Carlton Spur Convenience Store on Friday night, they broke the glass on two soda coolers before leaving. But the worst was yet to come.
Vandals again broke into the gas station and store just south of the city of Carlton sometime between Sunday night and Monday morning and broke "every piece of glass in the store," said co-owner Milissa Soukkala.
She wasn't exaggerating. Every glass item in the store, from the coolers to the food dispensers to the cash register to the gas monitor, was shattered, leaving what Soukkala estimated will be at least $50,000 in damage.
She suspects the reason that only two coolers were damaged Friday night is that one of the vandals was injured by a piece of glass, as a large amount of blood was found near the window where the vandals broke in.
Whoever broke in wasn't looking for money. Nothing was taken from the register and, though there was evidence the ATM machine was tampered with, it wasn't damaged. Only a few packets of cigarettes were taken, Soukkala said.
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"They were just interested in vandalism," she said.
They also apparently knew the store well enough to avoid the aim of a security camera and break in through a side window, Soukkala said. Once inside, they cut the wires to the cameras.
According to Sgt. Joe Mattinen of the Carlton County Sheriff's Office, an employee at the store noticed Monday that the business had been entered sometime overnight and reported the incident shortly after arriving at work at 5:30 a.m.
"We are looking at several different angles," Mattinen said. "It's unusual to have this type of thing happen at a fairly major
intersection, where there's often lots of traffic going by."
The Sheriff's Office is asking for the public's help in finding the vandals. Anyone with information is asked to call (218) 384-4185.
Soukkala, who has owned the business for the past two years with her brother, said she doesn't know why her store was targeted. She said she hopes to reopen the gas station and store in a week.
Wendy Johnson of the Pine Journal contributed to this report.
