The owner of a Waterloo café is thanking the community for lending a hand after his business was targeted by thieves. On Thursday, the owner of Café Pyrus Outpost on Roger Street, near the Spurline Trail, took to social media to announce the shop’s brand new air conditioner had been stolen. “Somebody walking by the trail came up to the window and said, ‘The AC unit looks like it was blown up,’” Tyzun James, Café Pyrus Outpost owner, said. James previously replaced the AC unit this summer. He said it cost around $7,000. “These costs, I’m not a Tim Hortons. We are not doing thousands of dollars [in sales] a day,” he said. James said he was told his $7,000 AC unit was likely sold for around $200 in scrap metal. This is not the first time the café has had to overcome thievery. The business hosts a community fridge operated by local charitable organizations. In 2023, that fridge was stolen. It was later replaced by a member of the community. Once word got out that the AC unit had been taken, a community member once again stepped up to help. “Being a small business, being in this kind of financial stress, I know what $7,000 means for a tiny business like this, and we were fortunate enough to be able to do this and help them out,” Vincent Afrouzi, owner of Advanced Heating and Cooling, said. Afrouzi said knowing the Café Pyrus has on the community made the decision to help easy. “Having a community who can support someone in need, like as simple as handing out a meal, these guys have a fridge here. If someone is hungry, they can come and grab a meal, that was one of the biggest deciding factors for sure,” Afrouzi said.
