Monday, November 7, 2011

Bomb threats ruin Halloween at party store

Anita Li and Peter Edwards
Staff Reporters

Halloween was ruined for management at the Amazing Party Store on Monday evening when the bomb squad was called in — yet again — to investigate a suspicious package.

“It’s a suspicious device so they’ll have to take their time,” Staff Sgt. Jim Walker said an hour after officers evacuated the costume store off the Gardiner Expressway at Islington Ave.

Calvin Barry, lawyer for the store’s owner, Shawn Hamilton, said the popular party supplier had been targeted for “business terrorism.”

“I feel so sorry for the guy,” Barry said. “This is the time when he makes his money.”

It was the latest in a string of bomb scare shutdowns over the past few days at the Amazing Party Store.

The store reopened Monday morning after bomb scares forced it to close for most of the weekend before Halloween.

The store closed Friday afternoon after a suspicious device was discovered, but reopened later that evening.

It closed again Saturday morning after two more devices were found, and reopened 9 a.m. Monday, intending to serve customers until midnight.

Employees then rallied with a brief effort to spread Halloween cheer.

Wearing a bright red nose, rainbow wig, striped purple pants and checkered suspenders, Brandon Timney sauntered past aisles of demon masks and severed body parts. “People need cheering up today,” he said to customers with a smile.

On Monday morning, Hamilton was asked how he would make up for lost business.

“It’s going to be a busy day for me,” he said. “I have people to service, and to organize 50 staff, and try to salvage the last day of Halloween.”

At that point, Hamilton said he lost over $300,000 in business. To make up for it, he was offering a 50 per cent discount on all merchandise from Monday to this Saturday. Typically, the store only cuts prices in half on Nov. 1.

“It is business terrorism because I was targeted on the three most important days of my year,” Hamilton said. “We can never get those sales back because this Halloween season is over, Saturday being the most crucial day because that’s when most of the parties are on.

“Myself personally, my family, my staff and my customers were terrorized from the suspicious packages that were left at our store.”

Hamilton could not be reached for comment after the latest shutdown at about 7:30 p.m. Monday.

Just after 9 a.m. Monday, around 10 customers browsed the store, which sells an assortment of party supplies, including Halloween costumes and props. Those present took advantage of the sales.

“Everything’s on for 50 per cent off, so that’s a good incentive,” said Theresa Sitter, who wanted to buy a frog costume.

Other customers came out to support Hamilton.

“It’s kind of an institution in Toronto,” said Mark Halden. “So to be shut down there, he took a massive hit. Considering the economic times, I feel bad for him.”

Halden added he was unconcerned about the bomb threats because police secured the store over the weekend.

A customer found a suspicious package in the store Friday afternoon, and pointed it out to employees, said police spokesman Victor Kwong. The police chemical biological, radiological and nuclear unit responded and defused the device.

The Emergency Task Force, bomb disposal squad and canine unit were called in Saturday after an employee found the second device, which police defused by water cannon. After sweeping the store, officers found a third device, which they dismantled by robot.

Police are unclear whether the devices posed a danger but defused them because “they couldn’t determine that it wasn’t harmful,” said Kwong. He could not specify the type of explosives found.

http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1078575