St. Pete community helps raise money after air conditioning unit stolen from bookstore
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - The cool temperature inside Wilson’s Book World on Tuesday wasn’t just a relief for the customers beating the heat. It was also a relief for the store’s owner, Michelle Jenquin.
"The thermostat when I came in on Saturday morning after the unit had been stolen was up to 89 degrees," she said. "Later in the day when I came back to check on things, it was up over 92," Jenquin said.
The St. Petersburg Police Department believes someone stole the store’s air conditioning unit overnight on May 17 or before dawn on May 18. Unfortunately, Jenquin said, the store’s security cameras didn’t catch anything. Police are investigating and said no arrests have been made.
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Jenquin said she noticed it was missing when she came into work the morning of May 18.
"I looked at my mailbox area. I was looking for a package, and I was looking, and it just didn't look right. When you look at something 100 times, and then you look at it, and you notice something's missing, it takes you a moment to figure out what that is. All of a sudden, I noticed it was the entire air conditioning unit just gone," Jenquin said.
"Who steals an air conditioning unit? All of us in Florida know it’s hot, and if you have any respect or any knowledge of books, why would you do that to a small independent bookstore? Just, wow," she said.
Jenquin said they set up fans and dehumidifiers to protect the collection of hundreds of thousands of books – some of which date back to the 1800s.
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"Exposure to high heat over a period of time can make books … they'll mildew. They'll warp. If the pages are older, they can start to deteriorate. A number of different things can happen," she said.
Jenquin said insurance didn’t cover replacing the unit.
"I came home very defeated," Jenquin said. "After I gave the police the report, and we did what we did to secure the building and everything until we could get the professionals out here … I called my best friend and I said, ‘I don't know what I'm going to do.’ And she said, ‘do a GoFundMe.’ And I said, ‘that’s not my thing.’ And after many conversations, she finally said, ‘look, it's really easy. This is what it's there for. Put it out in the community. You have a wonderful support group within the community. What's the worst that could happen."
The community raised $3,000 for the 53-year-old St. Pete store in the first day. They hit their $10,000 goal in four days.
Jenquin said they used the money to help pay for the new unit, electrical issues that had to be repaired from the incident, new security cameras and general property maintenance. The new unit has a security cage around it and is bolted to the ground.
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"It was very overwhelming. I feel the love from my community," Jenquin said. "Fifty-three years is a long time to be here, and we support our community. We're a small business. We’re not in it to make millions of dollars. We're here to promote the love of reading, the love of literature, learning, imagination, all of those things from our one-year-olds to our 101-year-olds. I'm still overwhelmed. I still wake up every morning very, very thankful that my shop is here that I was able to resolve the issue with the support of my community."
She said they had to close the store for seven business days while the new unit was installed and while a small glitch was fixed after it was put in. As of Tuesday, the store was back to its normal business hours, 10 a.m.-6 pm.
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