"This is just next-level destruction": Burglars destroy Excelsior chocolate shop's entire inventory
EXCELSIOR, Minn. – Truffle Hill Chocolates in Excelsior is used to having candy fly off the shelves during the holiday season.
But owner Marshall Morehead didn't expect every shelf to be empty heading into December.
According to police, the shop was broken into sometime late Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning.
Morehead says cash was stolen from the register and a computer was stolen. However, it's the destruction that was caused during the break-in that has forced the business to reassess during the all-important holiday season.
"They emptied three, full fire extinguishers. It is everywhere. It's literally on everything inside of the building," Morehead said. "We could've handled thefts. We could've handled some destruction. We could've handled some water. We could've handled a lot of things. This? This is just next-level destruction."
With no spot left untouched, everything the shop had prepared for the busy holiday season had to go.
"So we've cleaned out literally every piece of chocolate … a lot of hours and time and dedication was put into it and so that was difficult to have to throw all that away. It's well over 250 pounds, 300 pounds of chocolate," Morehead said. "It really couldn't have happened at a worse time. Because if it was a couple weeks ago, we would have been able to clean it, produce, get some inventory. And if it was a couple weeks from now, we would have already captured some of that holiday season."
Morehead says he isn't sure why someone would do this to his business, but he isn't spending too much time thinking about it. Instead, he's focused on rebuilding and reopening.
"I don't think any explanation would do this justice. We're just hitting that peak of our holiday season and for us to have to literally throw everything out and start from zero, is a real challenge " he said. "The biggest challenge that we have for us now, being Dec. 1, is building some inventory so that we can continue to service the people who have been coming here for 27 years."
It's a challenge Morehead and his team are already taking on.
"We're in here today just throwing stuff away. We've got a restoration company coming tomorrow to do a full deep clean, we're going to continue to work over the weekend with the hope that we can start production again on Monday, we'll be ready to start producing chocolates and getting some inventory," he said.
With cleanup efforts just getting started, Truffle Hill doesn't have a firm date for reopening yet. However, Morehead hopes it will be late next week and plans on announcing a reopening date on their social media pages.
In the meantime, a GoFundMe has been established to help the business and its employees while it remains closed.