A Seattle donut shop owner says thieves keep targeting his business, but not for the treats. Instead, they go straight for the cash, breaking in by drilling out the locks and forcing their way inside. The repeated burglaries have left Sean Willis, the owner of a shop called Dojoy, frustrated and absorbing the costs of the damage himself.
The shop is built around fun and creative flavors. Willis takes pride in recipes such as sour watermelon, mango tahini and a glazed sea salt twist, products that he develops on his own. That personal investment in the business is part of why the break-ins feel so frustrating to him, as the shop is described as his real pride and joy.
The thefts have hit more than one of his locations. Thieves drilled out the locks and forced their way into Dojoy shops in West Seattle, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, and most recently in Ballard. The pattern has turned the break-ins into a recurring problem spread across the different points of the small operation.
Despite the repeated damage, Willis says he does not file insurance claims. He fears that doing so would lead to higher rates or even the cancellation of his policy. By his own estimate, claiming every incident would add up to around nine claims between his shops, something he knows would become a serious problem for the business.
Instead, he is forced to cover the cost of the repairs out of his own pocket. He points out that a couple of hundred dollars is a significant amount on a slow day, and that the expenses pile up quickly when the break-ins keep happening one after another at his locations.
Even so, Willis is trying to keep the focus on his customers and his craft. With National Donut Day falling on Friday, he says he wants to keep the flavors fresh and draw people in for a new experience, adding that he does not want to raise prices or otherwise affect his customers in a negative way.
For Willis, the problem goes beyond his own shops. He hopes city leaders are getting a sense of the struggle and that they will come up with a way to fix it, noting that other small business owners he knows are facing something very similar. After the latest incident, he says he is looking into repair funds offered by the city, even though he would rather spend his time developing the new recipes he is already working on.