Memorial Day started with a gut punch at Woodstock Cafe, a deaf-owned nonprofit in Southeast Portland, after staff arrived to find the place burglarized and thousands of dollars in cash and gear gone.
Manager Rae Davis said the early morning break-in wiped out iPads, laptops and more than $12,000 in cash and supplies, cutting deep into the tools the team relies on to serve Deaf and hard-of-hearing customers. Those devices are not just point-of-sale gadgets but everyday communication lifelines, and their loss has left a staff of workers, all of whom have disabilities, scrambling to juggle shifts while trying to replace what was taken.
According to KPTV, Davis opened the cafe on Memorial Day to a scene that screamed trouble: cupboards thrown open, clothes tossed across the floor, and the iPads and laptops used to serve customers nowhere in sight. "There were some clothes all over the floor and there were cupboards open... and I was like, ah, okay. Got it," Davis told the station. The hit totaled more than $12,000, and because everyone working there has a disability, getting payroll and scheduling sorted after the disruption has been especially complicated.
What Was Taken
Davis said the thief made off with iPads, laptops, food and cash, the same items the cafe leans on for ordering, record keeping and communication with patrons who use assistive technology. As a nonprofit, the cafe has stressed that replacing the stolen equipment is urgent, since those devices sit at the heart of its accessible service model.
Nearby Break-Ins Raise Concerns
The Woodstock Cafe burglary landed just days before a string of break-ins at The Heist food cart pod down the street, raising neighborhood eyebrows even if police have not publicly linked the cases. The Heist is a large, bank-themed food cart pod on SE Woodstock Boulevard that opened in 2023 and hosts roughly 15 carts, according to Eater Portland.
How To Help
Anyone with information about the Woodstock Cafe burglary is asked to contact the Portland Police Bureau at [email protected], KPTV reported.
In the middle of all the chaos, the cafe has been buoyed by regulars and neighbors who have dropped by, sent messages and offered help, a response Davis said has underscored how much the space means to both local residents and the Deaf and disabled communities. "For us it was very clear that the community loves us and they support us," Davis said.
