Bakery owner arrives at work to find store trashed by half-naked homeless woman

By CNN Newsource

Published October 5, 2024 2:50 PM

By Lauren Pozen

CARSON, California (KCAL/KCBS) — A Carson bakery owner was distraught to find that his beloved shop had been ransacked early Friday morning and that the culprit — a half-naked homeless woman — was still inside.

Matthew Valentine said that he walked into Sweet Valentine Bakery, located in the 17400 block of Avalon Boulevard, at around 6 a.m. when he saw the woman.

“She asked me who I was and told me that I needed to lave,” Valentine said. “She came back into the bakery, smashed a few things and took some things out to throw at me.”

He says that he could tell she wasn’t in the right state of mind, and that she was naked from the waist down.

“She just made a huge mess, got into a lot of the merchandise,” he said.

Video from inside the shop shows the woman pushing items off of shelves and overturning furniture.

“She’s one person by herself,” Valentine said. “Clearly mentally unstable. Even though this is my business, there’s no need for me to get involved with her physically, so I just called the authorities.”

He said that Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputies eventually arrived and took her away. As of Friday evening, it’s unclear if she remains in custody and what charges, if any, she faces.

Valentine said that he was forced to close shop for the day, and as he began to clean up the extensive mess left behind, he was shocked to find the community rally around him.

“People started showing up with brooms and dustpans right away, asking, ‘What can I do to help clean up the mass?'” Valentine said.

While no money was taken, he says that he still plans to reevaluate his current security measures to make sure this doesn’t happen again, especially since it’s the second time he’s been broken into since opening just 10 months ago.

“These unfortunate things happen in business, and so we will just take the proper precautions, but we will keep moving forward and serving the community,” he said.

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