Coffee shop vandalized two days after opening

January 25, 2007

By: Gerry Warner

It's been a bumpy start in business for local entrepreneur Kelvin Behrens, who opened Cuppy's Coffee on Van Horne Street Monday only to see his gleaming new franchise vandalized by Wednesday. "After being in business for only three days, I never expected anything like this. It was like an attack," said the disappointed businessman.

The vandal, a male in his mid 20's who was caught on the drive-through coffee shop's video surveillance system, left blood splattered all over one of the half-dozen windows he broke in the shop. The attack took place at 4:30 a.m. and the vandal in heavy winter clothing and a baseball cap worn sideways was brandishing a wooden-handled snow clearing brush to break the windows. Behrens recovered the brush and turned it over to police.

His wife Darlene was the first to discover the vandalism when she came to open the shop around 5:45 a.m. Wednesday. "I was very upset and called my husband right away and told him to get his butt over here and then I just cried." Behrens said the vandalism didn't appear to be the random, spur-of-the-moment kind but deliberate with no attempt to take money. "It was an attack. There's no other way to describe it."

He said he's unaware of any motive for the attack, but added he's had problems over the years with people illegally parking on his narrow piece of property at 357 Van Horne Street. And now that he has a business operating on the property, it may have brought the situation to a head, he says. Despite this, many drivers have been stopping at the new shop for freshly made cappuccinos, lattes and fresh fruit smoothies. And Behrens is determined to carry on. "We're still very excited and enthusiastic about the business and proud of the product we sell.

This is a setback, but we didn't lose a lot of business and we've still got momentum." Officially known as "Cuppy's Coffee, Smoothies and More," the franchise in Cranbrook is the first to be opened outside the U.S. and the entire organization is proud of Behrens for establishing the chain's first international outlet, said Rachel Clark, vice president of marketing for the company based in Florida. "He's a good guy and that's why I hate to see something like this happening to him. He's worked so hard and overcame so many obstacles to open his business." Clark said Behrens bought his franchise in May 2005 and had to deal with numerous difficulties before he could open it.

"There were problems with location, the Building Code taxes, customs regulations and simply being the first international Cuppy's Coffee Store to open." One of the biggest problems was parking with the City of Cranbrook requiring Behrens to have seven parking spaces even though he's essentially operating a drive-through business. To make matters worse, his property is often used as a parking lot by people going to other businesses in the nearby area.

Despite the problems, Behrens remains undeterred. He says there's more than 250 successful Cuppy's outlets in the U.S. and there's no reason why one can't succeed here. "And I'd like to be that one."