Jul 03, 2009 - 04:30 AM

By Parvaneh Pessian

WHITBY -- Two months ago David Crabb was torn out of his sleep by an unsettling phone call from the police in the middle of the night, alerting him his store window had been shattered by vandals.

He rushed to his office at Stratus Real Estate in downtown Whitby to find two officers sitting in a cruiser and mobs of people spilling onto the street from nearby bars and clubs.

"I was left there with a broken window and nobody to help me because the police never got out of the car and there were hundreds of kids everywhere," Mr. Crabb said.

"I couldn't even clean up with them just standing around, cursing, fighting and pushing each other -- it was total chaos and that's on a good night."

Mr. Crabb is one of dozens of business owners in the downtown core who hold their breath at the start of every weekend, fearing their store may be the next one under attack.

Cloaked by the darkness of night, vandals have been wreaking havoc on businesses in the area for years, resulting in extensive property damage that takes place primarily during the wee morning hours between 1 and 3 a.m. on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

A handful of business owners gathered at Nice Bistro restaurant -- that recently suffered its second broken window of the year about two weeks ago -- on Tuesday to share their personal horror stories.

Some of the worst incidents have occurred at Van Belle Floral Shoppe, a modest store that has been at the intersection of Dundas and Brock streets for the past 25 years.

"We've had a brick through our window, it's been shot with a shotgun, we were broken into on Valentine's Day, planters are stolen every single time we put them out and it's just constant," said co-owner Martha Vandepol, adding she now has the glass company on speed dial with the overwhelming number of situations the store has faced involving smashed property.

Storeowners believe the deteriorating conditions are not only putting a dent in their wallets for necessary repairs but also driving potential customers away from the area.

"I see the downtown decaying day after day with hooligans and garbage everywhere and I shake my head and ask myself, 'What nice people are going to want to come downtown to eat or to shop when they see all of this'?" said Nick Youroukas, owner of Wimpy's Diner that's been in the area for six years.

Richard Bear, owner of Indelibly Yours tattoo parlour on Byron Street, said vandalism opportunities are ripe with the numerous back alley parking lot spots, which make it more difficult for law officials to catch perpetrators in the act.

"When the police were on bicycles and when they had foot patrols, things got considerably better but now they're sitting back in their cars so they don't have the response time to catch anybody doing anything and the vandals can just disappear," Mr. Bear said.

Durham Regional Police have been notified of the string of incidents over the past while and plan to meet with the business owners next week to toss around strategies for solving the problem.

"We're aware that there are ongoing issues down there and we are focusing attention on putting in a foot patrol on specific days," said Sergeant Mark Morissette.

But the key is making bar owners aware of the situation, said Penny Kertsos, owner of Pimentos Restaurant on Brock Street and a member of the Downtown Whitby Development Steering Committee,

"We're no different from any downtown area where there's vandalism during late hours but I think that we're small enough here in Whitby that we could get a message out to bar owners," she said.

"We need to let them know that as a result of their excessive business on the weekends, this is what is happening to us because when you run a business, you are accountable to your neighbours."

The Town has put the wheels in motion toward enacting a restaurant and bar owners' association for the downtown core in an effort to curb safety issues linked to late-night hours.

"They had a bar owners association that worked very well but it just kind of petered out and I'd love to see them resurrect it because they had a common approach to addressing a problem," Mayor Pat Perkins said.

"It's that time of the year and we've had business in the downtown for years so I can't tell you how many times we've had issues of one type or another."