Burglary at the Factory

The unthinkable happened – we were burgled. Not once, nor twice, but three times! Friday night, Saturday night, and then Sunday night. Each night we reported the crime to the police, who have been terrific through this process – they were here Saturday for fingerprinting, and again on Sunday night after the last break-in.

So Friday, they got in through our rear garage door, but took very little. We secured the door and they attempted to get back in on the Saturday night, but were thwarted by what we thought was pretty good reinforcement of the door. Alas, Sunday night they attacked it with crowbars and some incredible force and actually ripped the door and brackets off the wall! And they took everything – IT equipment, our spraying technology, lots of alcohol, finished chocolate products, and lots of little things – we are still finding things missing as we go to use them.

Our office has been turned upside down, boxes emptied – what a mess. They must have sat in my chair when they went through my desk and took the IT equipment – and I have been bitten by fleas in the last day, so perhaps our burglars were flea ridden. WE lost our Head Office Point of Sale system (no good to anyone else) so we cannot update anything on our retail stores’ point of sale units.

We are still unable to make any of our filled range (90% of what we make), until we replace our spray technology. This is a fairly significant disruption to our business, but nothing we can’t recover from. I think the hardest thing is just the senselessness of it all. These criminals just don’t care. And even if they are caught, they won’t change. They will get a slap on the wrist and go out and keep doing this. What do these people contribute to society? Why are we so lenient on crime in New Zealand?

I am very passionate about our product and brand, and to see our factory and office trashed like this reduced me to tears – and that is pretty unusual for me. The sense of violation is profound – so I can only imagine how much worse that must be for people that have had their homes burgled. I think I have gone through the full range of emotions – heart broken, sad, angry, disbelief…but now I am just focused on getting our team back together and back on track.

We are now working through all the insurance side of things – will be interesting to see how smoothly that goes. We are with Allianz and we understand they are pretty quick, so hopefully this will be a painless process and we can get back into production ASAP!

[edit] Forgot to mention – thanks to an observant security guard, police are following very strong leads. Given some of the stuff taken is specialist (or product not yet released to the public), should make the process a little easier. [/edit]

Until then, onwards and upwards, we won’t let this interruption take away from our mission to produce the best artisan chocolate in the world!