Flower pots used by business owners on Market Street to decorate their storefronts have been the targeted by vandalism in recent weeks.

On Sunday morning, April 30, vandals found the ornamental flower pots in front of Romanza too tempting and completely destroyed them, leaving a mess of pieces and broken beer bottles on the sidewalk.

There has been a pattern of vandalism on the North side of the 2200 block of Market Street in the past two months, most of the damage has been done to flower pots.

In the ten days prior to the most recent incident, someone had been chipping away pieces of the pots.

"We've had damage to it on numerous occasions, it began last fall," said Murray. The two pots are valued at $1,600.

When Starbucks employees came to work at 5:15 a.m., they found the damage at Romanza. Then a customer said he saw some kids running away and leaving big broken mess.

Romanza is located in a storefront of the Ballard Building. The building's management recently installed security cameras on each floor of the building after a series of thefts in the building's offices.

One security camera monitors the entry way, next to Romanza. Because of the angle the camera is mounted, it did not record the incident said building Manager Al Maurer.

Bob Carlson, owner of the Great Harvest Bread Company, has not had any problems with vandalism at his store yet. "It seems like an ongoing problem for a few weeks now," he said.

A few weeks ago, vandals knocked over the bubble gum machine at Imagination Toys. "It was knocked over by kids a month ago. We heard it crashing when we were open," said Toni Pricco.

Next door at the Tableau store, Marie Lutton said there was an incident on a recent Saturday afternoon where a pot in front of a window was knocked over and smashed.

Flower planters have been vandalized four times in front of the Secret Garden Bookshop. "They knocked our flower planter over and destroyed it completely," said Manager Susan Scott.

The store replaced the pots with ones made of a different material that could not break. When the vandals came back the pots were tipped over and the plants spilled onto the ground.

"Retail businesses made efforts to beautify the street and someone is wrecking it," said Beth Williamson Miller, executive director of the Ballard Chamber of Commerce.