Break-in at famous Okanagan Falls ice cream parlour

“HORRIFIC DAMAGE”

OKANAGAN FALLS – Someone broke into Tickleberry’s, the famous Okanagan Falls ice cream parlour, early this morning by ramming a SUV through a wall.

Owner Kelsey Hoy says she got the call from her alarm company at about 4:20 a.m., Aug. 3, and raced to her shop to find the RCMP already there.

“Someone essentially rammed in an entire wall of our building to get to our safes,” Hoy says. “They drove into where our gift shop and office are at the back.”

She refers to it as “horrific damage,” in a post to Tickleberry’s Facebook page.

Hoy says the security cameras at the shop recorded the whole thing.

“They were two men in their mid 30s in a black, or dark coloured, Ford Explorer,” she says. “They scouted out the building for a few minutes and actually tried to crowbar the wall open before going in with their vehicle.”

Hoy says one of the neighbours witnessed the break-in and says the thieves rammed the wall three times before they got inside.

She says the suspects didn’t get away with the safe, but “put a pretty good effort into it.” She’s sure they realized they didn’t have much time with the alarm going off and the police on the way.

Hoy says B.C. Day is the second busiest day of the year for the family-run ice cream parlour so they can’t afford to shut down.

“We have taken out most the damaged wall… we’ve put a big tent over it and we are just going to continue on,” she says.

Hoy says the RCMP are investigating not only the break-in at Tickleberry’s, but several other business break-and-enters in Summerland last night.

Calls to the RCMP have not yet been returned.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Howard Alexander at halexander@infonews.ca. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.