Portland art, jewelry shop broken into; suspect caught on camera

PORTLAND Ore. (KPTV) - Elemental Arts, a small art, jewelry and vintage store in Portland’s Sellwood neighborhood, was broken into early Sunday morning. According to one of the owners, the thief stole thousands of dollars’ worth of jewelry and other vintage pieces.

“Just a mom-and-pop shop. My wife’s the jeweler, I’m the glass-blower of the house,” said co-owner Scott Gould.

On Sunday morning, Gould received a call from the coffee shop next door to Elemental Arts, telling him the store had been broken into.

“Just wake up and go, [got] there as fast as we can,” he said. “Just panic and frustration, anger and sadness, everything all at once.”

Gould said it’s thanks to Sebastiano’s, a restaurant located a few doors down from Elemental Arts, that the suspect was caught on camera.

Sebastiano’s surveillance footage shows the suspect in the courtyard outside Elemental Arts, unscrewing the outdoor lights and even peaking into different businesses. Around 3:55 a.m. on Saturday, the suspect broke into Elemental Arts.

“[They] tried to jimmy in the door, couldn’t get it, so they took a rock and broke through the window and let themselves in,” Gould said.

Gould said the suspect damaged the front door and a display case inside the store. According to Gould, the suspect stole vintage spoons and multiple pieces of jewelry, some of which were handmade by Gould’s wife.

“Not everything was super valuable, but there were some pieces that were valuable my wife had made personally,” he said. “So some of her pride and joy, and very identifiable, that’s for sure.”

Gould and his wife have been in business for 20 years and have had their store in Sellwood for five. This was the first time they’ve been the victim of a break-in at the new location. While Gould and his wife work to fix up their store and replace the stolen pieces, he said he’s thankful to have such a supportive local community.

“We have so much community that’s good community that comes in here with such good energy,” Gould said.

According to the Portland Police Bureau, officers responded to Elemental Arts around 9:30 a.m. on Sunday. No arrests have been made at this time.

Gould told FOX 12 he plans to up the security measures at the store to hopefully prevent something like this from happening again.