Richmond female-owned business hit twice by vandal

A Richmond woman-owned business has been vandalized twice by the same man within a month's period, the owner said Tuesday.

The man hurled rocks, bottles and even containers of urine into Express Employment Professionals near Hilltop Mall, littering the office with glass and debris.

"We couldn’t walk on the carpets," said Tracy Dempsey, who owns the business.

The motive isn't known. 

"I’m thinking someone is just very hateful and maybe doesn’t like the fact that I have an all-female staff," Dempsey said. "They’re not gaining anything, so I don’t understand the violence and the crime."

Dempsey offers free job placement for eligible workers. 

Surveillance video shows a man walking up to the building, which also houses medical offices last month. He is seen walking away but not before he drops a large rock on the ground, which breaks into pieces.

A few minutes later, he hurls a large rock at the building's glass doors. But it just bounces off.

"He came back with smaller rocks and empty Modelo beer bottles, and he threw them through three giant windows of my office," Dempsey said. "It was unbelievable. They all blew out inside."

She added, "There were beer bottles and the big boulders inside – it was a mess.:

She had her windows boarded up.

But to her disbelief it happened yet again on Sunday night. 

She says the same man came back again throwing rocks into her business. But there was something else.

"There were a couple bottles of urine, and he smashed five windows and threw the bottles of urine into my office in two different locations," she said. "Very sick person." 

Dempsey believes her business was targeted, but she doesn’t know why. 

"I don’t believe he would be a disgruntled client. He might – a stretch – he might be someone that was looking for work and might not have been qualified, so might not have hired him," Dempsey said.

Richmond police say they're reviewing evidence from both cases.