Whisky West hit by Christmas grinches who stole more than $15,000 including employee bonuses
GoFundMe page set up to help offset the loss
Whisky West hit by Christmas grinches who stole more than $15,000 including employee bonuses
Colin and Donna Pickering have been doing their best to keep both locations of Whisky West open during the pandemic but it's been a struggle. The Belltown location has lost the tourist, conference and hotel business while the Morgan Junction location has been buoyed by locals they are still off by nearly 80%. Now a burglary and loss of $15,000 has added to their problems.
Photo by Patrick Robinson
Mon, 12/21/2020
Whisky West, the Morgan Junction bar and restaurant in business since 2016 in the West Seattle location, suffered a break in, and burglary in the early morning hours of Dec. 20. losing, more than $15,000 including their safe, food, liquor their work truck and employee Christmas bonuses prepared the night before.
It's not like the bar and owners Colin and Donna Pickering had been riding high. Their two locations in Belltown and West Seattle had both been struggling during the pandemic. Despite streamlining menus to point them toward take out and cutting costs, even getting a helping hand from landlord Scott MacMurray, business is off nearly 80% from last year.
The thieves that appeared to be two white maies in their twenties, entered the business by cutting through a lock on a metal gated side door then using some kind of pry bar to open the door. They did not appear to be familiar with the building layout since they did not head straight for the office. Still, in under 25 minutes they managed to find the safe, find the keys to the 2007 White Ford F-150 parked out back, and then loaded up the safe, bottles of liquor, cases of beer, food and make their escape.
"We have insurance but we are not sure at this point how much we can get back or when," said Donna.
The security system has over 12 cameras but the thieves were completely masked and hooded, with one of them wearing a backpack.
"We had just put together the Christmas bonuses for the employees the night before, put the envelopes together and put them in the safe," said Colin.
The business is open every day from 11am to 9pm, has some shared outdoor seating undercover with heaters out back but the fact is, it's winter and sitting outside has less appeal.
So, this crime has added insult to injury, "It sure feels like being kicked when you're down," said Donna.
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help offset the loss of the Christmas bonuses, if you'd like to help a little.
Here's that link https://bit.ly/3mLCFAI
They set a $2000 goal. But you can also help them by just supporting their business with your purchases. They are open every day with food and custom cocktails to go. "Pretty much anything the customer wants," Colin said.
Here's a list of what they lost:
$7000 in petty cash
$2000 in Christmas bonus cash
$700 in daily cash
$655 New in box hp laptop
$334 Space Heater
2007 ford f-150 $2000
$400 in bottled beer
$250 in food loss
Liquors taken
2 E.H. Taylor Rye $100 x 2 = $200
3 Basil Hayden $75 x3 = $225
2 Balvenie 12yr $120 =$240
2 Balvenie 17yr $200 =$400
2 liter Grey Goose $50 =100
1 Johnnie Walker Blue $200
2 Johnnie Walker Green $150 = $300
3 High West Yipee Kai Yay $90 =$270
3 High West Mid Winters night $200 = $600
2 Blantons $80 = $160
1 Hudson Manhattan $40
4 Titos $30 =$120
4 Jameson $30 = $120
Please start a go fund me page...This is terrible