Key points:
• Owner Shantell Reid shares heartbreak over vandalism on social media.
• A person who declined to be identified, who Reid calls an “angel,” paid for the cost of repairing the damage.
• DeKalb County Police Department is investigating the burglary at Nuttopia.
• The store was the only downtown Tucker business hit over the weekend.
In the midst of icy conditions, Nuttopia owner Shantell Reid has faced the cold, harsh reality of a break-in for the second time in a matter of months, but the kindness of strangers has restored her faith.
On Jan. 26, Reid tearfully shared on the candy store’s social media platforms that she was awakened by the news that her store on Hugh Howell Road had been broken into and vandalized around 5 a.m. The store, which offers gourmet candies and a variety of nuts, was last burglarized almost four months to the date on Sept. 27.
“It’s quite heartbreaking opening a business and within one day of our grand opening, we got broken into,” Reid said in a video posted Jan. 26. “Just within a storm, we got broken into a second time. It’s quite disheartening to know you’ve worked so hard to bring a business to a city, and the burglars have no heart that businesses are struggling right now.”
The footage of the break-in shown in Reid’s video shows a dark Audi backing up to the entrance, and a trio of masked and hooded people throwing bricks and rocks at the store’s windows and door continuously before entering the store and trashing it.
Crime in Tucker
According to the DeKalb County Police Department, officers responded to a burglary alarm at the store around 5:13 a.m. Officers found two windows and a glass front door shattered upon their arrival. There does not appear to be any other businesses that were burglarized over the weekend, and there isn’t “any kind of uptick in break-ins during these types of weather events,” said Blaine Clark, DeKalb County Police public information officer.
Crime in downtown Tucker has been a continued concern for residents and officials. Last August, then-Tucker Mayor Frank Auman announced initiatives to offer matching grants for security systems and a $10,000 reward for information on such crimes.
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At the time of Nuttopia’s first break-in, Matthew Lee, executive director of Tucker-Northlake Community Improvement District, said the burglary was a troubling sign for local business owners.
“Gating parking lots, bars on windows, roll-down doors over storefronts, and locking up merchandise are not the answer,” Lee told Rough Draft Atlanta. “I don’t want Tucker to get to that point.”
In December, DeKalb County Police opened the Real Time Crime Center in Tucker, a modernized hub for monitoring live video feeds, enhancing response times, and improving technology-driven public safety measures.
“These tools allow us to see more, know more, and act faster,” said DeKalb County Police Chief Gregory Padrick. “The Real Time Crime Center strengthens officer safety, improves coordination, and gives us the real-time intelligence needed to better protect our communities.”
Nuttopia’s angel
Even with new safety measures in place, Reid said the damage and devastation made it hard to want to continue running her store in Tucker.
“It’s so sad, at 5 o’clock in the morning, we had to be in clean-up mode, cleaning up the devastation,” Reid said. “[They] got nothing to the point that you go into the fridge just for juice, because you’re like, ‘I’m not leaving without something.’”
As of the afternoon after the break-in, things were turning around, said District 1 Councilman Roger Orlando. Orlando and DeKalb Police Maj. Matthew Harden met with Reid hours after the incident.
“She is feeling better and the line of folks going in and out in support was beautiful,” Orlando said. “Nuttopia is NOT leaving Tucker!! In fact, they’re replacing glass to the tune of $2,000.”
Reid returned to social media after the challenging morning and the outpouring of support at her store the evening of Jan. 26 to share an update. She said as she went to pay a repairman for the $2,077.36 glass replacement, a stranger serendipitously arrived, pulled out his card, and told the embattled business owner, “I got it.”
“Nothing this good has ever happened to me,” she wrote in the post. “I told myself I was done, but when this angel showed up today and paid this bill in full, I started crying. Thank you to this angel.”
The investigation into the burglary is active and open. Anyone with information can send an anonymous tip through the free DeKalb County Police Department’s Tip411 app or by texting “DKPD” to 847411.
The police department will also host a town hall on public safety in Tucker at 6 p.m. Feb. 2 at Tucker-Reid H. Cofer Library, 5234 Lavista Road.