(UPDATE: April 27 at 4:45 p.m.) – Okanagan residents come together to support one of their own following a robbery at a local business over the weekend.

Luar body piercing equipment valued at thousands of dollars was stolen Sunday. The incident put the family who owned the studio in a very difficult position as they could not afford to replace the stolen items.

<who> Photo credit: GoFuindMe “src =” https://www.kelownanow.com/files/files/images/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-27%20at%203_57_32%20PM.png “style =” margin: 5px; “/></p> <p>While they were losing their luck, a GoFundMe was organized by Gustavo and Seairra Oldford. Fundraiser organizer Breanne Maloff stated that she was created to help them recover from that setback.</p> <p>“As many of you know, piercing is not allowed during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Maloff wrote. “This puts our beloved friends in great dire straits, with very limited opportunities to recover from this setback. They need our help at this time! The help of a community that they have supported over the past year.” </p> <p>In less than 24 hours, the fundraiser raised $ 1,510, nearly half of its current goal. </p> <p>“Your goal is to reopen your new studio and be fully functional once this pandemic is over. Let’s help you achieve that goal!”</p> <p>Click here to try GoFundMe. </p> <p><strong>(Original story: April 26th at 3 p.m.) – </strong>A local family run business is seeking public help following a break-in and robbery at their location this morning. </p> <p>Seairra Oldford, the owner of Luar Body Piercing, stated that her new studio on Ethel Street, which is still under construction, was robbed just before 5:30 a.m. According to Oldford, a suspect has been exposed to a Metabo air compressor, a Metabo nail gun, a bright yellow LED construction light, a Makita impact screw gun, a Makita drill, two Makita battery chargers, two Makita drill batteries and a great deal of pain from body jewelry and more. </p> <p>“I looked pretty carefully at what was taken,” said Oldford. “We’re looking at around $ 2,000 for tools so far, but I haven’t really finalized this list. We also got a lot of body jewelry stolen that we wanted to use on our store when we opened, whenever that was the case I haven’t been able to inventory all of that, but that alone is probably well over $ 1,000. I’d say it’s between two and 3,000 at this point. “</p> <p><img alt= Photo credit: Seairra Oldford “src =” https://www.kelownanow.com/files/files/images/Screen%20Shot%202020-04-26%20at%202_47_43%20PM.png “style =” margin: 5px; “/>

Oldford is unsure whether her family will be able to recover from the loss, especially given the current state of the country.

“It was difficult, we have two young children to support, bills to pay and no income. There is a lot of government help, but our company does not qualify for the government business grants, which is unfortunate because we are so small. ”

Oldford mentioned that this was the second break in their business in the past four months. The first came when Luar was downtown, which gave her the idea to move.

“This is actually the second time we’ve broken into in four months. Our last studio was on downtown Bernard Avenue. We were actually broken into on January 1st, New Years morning. They broke the door, and that was a lot of money we had to replace there. ”

“Then we decided to get out of downtown because there were buildings next to us that had been broken into more than once, so we left. We got this place on Ethel Street and we weren’t even open and we broke in. ”

Oldford adds that her mood isn’t the highest she’s ever had, and she hopes the Kelowna people can help her find her stolen items.

“All I’m really looking for at this point is try to find our stuff. We’ve put everything we had into building this business and we’re not even open or making money. We haven’t really busy Give, I can’t really replace these right now, and if I can’t replace them, I can’t finish building our studio. So it looks a little bleak at the moment and we’re definitely a little scared. “

Anyone with information about the stolen items is encouraged to contact Kelowna RCMP at (250)762-3300 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477. Residents who want to support the Oldfords can contact them here.

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