Keeping an Eye on Downtown Spokane
Safety Team Ambassadors Alert Local Business of Break-In Incident
The Downtown Spokane Partnership (DSP) is committed to the vitality of downtown Spokane through its Clean and Safe teams. During these unprecedented times, these teams continue to patrol the Business Improvement District, providing eyes and ears for our police department, and community at large, on a daily basis.
It was during one of these patrols on Friday, April 3 that clean team members noticed a door to an empty building adjacent to Spokane Boxing Gym that appeared to be forcibly opened. Dan Hall, Director of the Safety Ambassador Team, immediately contacted the owner of the gym, Rick Welliver, and met him at the scene.
The vandals had apparently forced their way into the building and broke through a dry wall to enter Welliver’s gym. Once inside, they damaged and stole from the property, most notably breaking into the personal lockers of the gym’s youth members, stealing their equipment and the contents within.
“It’s a shame things like this happen,” says Hall. “I’m very glad, however, we discovered the break-in when we did, or things could have been a lot worse.”
Welliver commends the Safety Ambassadors for bringing the incident to his attention as soon as they did. “They do a good job,” he said on a Facebook Live video released Friday afternoon showing the aftermath of the incident.
The Spokane community quickly rallied around Welliver and his gym. Repairs to damaged property are already underway, and a GoFundMe campaign to replace the youth members’ stolen equipment has raised well over half of its $6,000 goal so far.
Every day the DSP’s Clean and Safe teams work diligently to protect and improve our community. If you are a business owner in the downtown area, please make sure we have your contact information so that our personnel can reach you as soon as possible in the event of any emergency that pertains to your business.
Downtown Spokane Partnership contact form.
If you would like to make a contribution to the Spokane Boxing Gym, visit the GoFundMe page here.