Valet Gourmet on Broadway has front door smashed, safe stolen.

Some time early this morning, an unidentified person threw a rock through the glass front door of Valet Gourmet, an independently owned food delivery service formerly known as Blue Ridge To Go. The business has been located at its Broadway location since December of 2008.

Owner Kenan Hopkins reports that this is the first troubling incident that the business has encountered, although their neighbors, Bob Lawrence Power Equipment, have reported multiple break-ins over the years. “In fact, Bob Lawrence told me this morning that I should keep the Asheville Police Department on speed-dial,” Hopkins says.

Hopkins says that the business was fortunate in the regard that no equipment was stolen, and no one was hurt.

“If definitely could be worse,” he says. “We had our front door smashed, and I guess while they were doing that, they damaged our floor and conference table, they pried the safe off of the wall and stole the whole safe,” he reports. “Fortunately, we didn’t have a ton of cash in there, but we did have some.”

“More than anything, it’s a little unnerving that anyone would do that here,” he says.

Hopkins says that the police report listed the damage at approximately $2,000. “We were thankful that they didn’t take more than they did, that’s for sure.”

“I think it’s unnerving that someone would throw a rock through our front door. I think that’s the main part that’s scary about the whole situation,” says Hopkins. “And now we’re stuck with a plywood door until next week, which definitely diminishes the working atmosphere in our office,” he says, laughing.

A replacement safe will arrive on Monday. “We’ll definitely going to make sure that it will take a lot of effort to steal that one. Hopefully this won’t happen again. We’ll certainly have security installed for the future,” he reports.

“It’s disheartening, because we try to have a really nice work atmosphere and do community projects and be good corporate citizens,” says Hopkins. “Then something like this happens and it makes you realize that there’s plenty of bad people in the world. It’s kind of a reality check.”

Hopkins intends to move on quickly, and reports that there will be no interruptions in the delivery service that Valet Gourmet provides. “We just really want to look forward, not backward. That’s a big thing around here, so we’re not going to dwell on it by any means.”