Cottage Gardens, the Church Street florist, greenhouse and nursery, is open after suffering extensive damage at the hands of a vandal or vandals during the night of Dec. 10-11. The vandal(s) wrote anti-Semitic slurs and damaged electronic equipment, display cases and merchandise.
Cottage Gardens never officially shut down, owner Russell Barden said Dec. 14. Store employees led an extensive clean-up effort in the 48 hours after the break-in. Evidence of the weekend’s destruction was difficult for shoppers to spot Monday morning, Dec. 13.
“We’re not 100 percent but we’re getting there,” Barden said.
“The biggest complication is the computers,” he said. The vandal(s) broke the business’ four computers during their rampage. Barden already has new computers and plans to set up Wednesday, Dec. 15.
Barden did not have an estimate for the damage to the business. “It’s going to be substantial,” he said.
The Cottage Gardens staff is “doing pretty well,” he said. “Saturday was the hardest day for everybody.” The business’ quick rebound has benefited from the support of longtime customers and area businesses “checking in on us and offering help,” he said.
Barden discovered the scene upon arriving at the store Dec. 11. He believes the perpetrators gained entrance through a rear door.
The vandal(s) cut computer wires, phone lines and a microwave cord and emptied bottles of liquid fertilizer around the shop. “They broke things of value. They did not take anything of value,” Olivia Atherton, a Cottage Gardens employee, said.
The vandal(s) wrote the anti-Semitic slurs and other obscenities on a door, a counter and display cases for flowers and candy.
“I don’t think this is racially motivated,” Detective Richard Alexander of the Damariscotta Police Department said at the time. “I just think a couple of teenagers came in here and did as much damage as they possibly could.”
“It could be classified as a hate crime,” Damariscotta Police Chief Steve Drake said Dec. 13. “We’re still investigating that angle.”
“I don’t consider it a hate crime. I consider it a hateful act,” Barden said. Cottage Gardens does not have any Jewish employees, he said. He called the epithets “random slurs.”
“That doesn’t make any sense to us,” he said. “None of us here take it personally.”
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office assisted the Damariscotta Police Department at the scene, using a K9 unit to search the surrounding area.
A Damariscotta Police Department patrol and at least one witness observed “some people in the area last night,” Alexander said. The department will follow up, he said, but no description of the individuals was available.
As of press time, no further information was available from the Damariscotta Police Department.
“My sense is the police are onto the suspects,” Barden said Dec. 14.
The vandalism follows two burglaries at the nearby Cherry Gallery, on Oct. 9 and Nov. 9-10. Alexander said he doesn’t think the incidents are related.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is encouraged to contact the Damariscotta Police Department at 563-1909.
