Colorado Toy Store Being Sued By Previous Landlord

Below is the story of the theft and why we had to close in February 2023 - We are now being sued by Tebo Properties in Boulder Colorado for breach of contract because we had to close our business and didnt fulfill our lease there. We were told by Tebo himself that he was going to try to make us whole after this whole situation which we took as he was gonna help us lease the space and not owe him anything. The space was vacant without payment from January 2023 until August 2023 and now we are being sued for those amounts + interest and fees. The space at 337 Main St was run down, the swamp cooler didnt work correctly and it would be between 80-90 degrees during the summer in our shop, these things were never fixed properly after multiple emails. There were lots of things never mentioned about the property that Tebo Properties purposefully left out to get the lease signed. We are asking for any help, whether it be a attorney who will help us pro bono, donations to our Go Fund Me or going to our website www.stnixstore.com or coming into our new location at 1834 Main St, STE 18, Longmont and shopping cause every bit helps us try to get out from underneath this.

HERE IS OUR STORY

On December 2nd in the afternoon a man walked into our shop laid his debit card on the counter and told the owner Virginia he would take one of everything. After talking with him, a bit, he said he needed it all by the next day Saturday the 3rd and if we could make it happen. We told him we could and he left a business card and his debit card on the counter and walked out. We called him to verify again that he wanted one of everything including antique and loose items and asked if we could run the card as we were boxing things up. He verified that would be fine and yes, he wanted one of everything and would pick it up Sat Dec 3rd. We started boxing and ringing merchandise up, our POS (Point of Sale) could only handle around 50 items in the cart at one time and allowed us to save carts so we had to call him again and let him know that we would have to ring up multiple transactions due to this.

He verified that would be fine and just to keep the receipts and run the card. So, we got the first cart of boxes rung up and went to run the card and it was declined. We then proceeded to call him again to see what was going on and could not reach him. We left messages and heard nothing back. We waited until the close of business and still had not heard anything so we started unpacking the boxes we had packed up. We had a church Christmas party to go to that evening and so we decided we would just put everything else out of our minds and go enjoy ourselves and call the police the next morning to turn over the debit (thinking it was possibly stolen). As we pulled up to the house for the Christmas party he called us letting us know that he had been out of town in Florida and that the card he had given us had been put on hold due to travel. We then proceeded to verify again that he wanted everything still and he said yes, he would by Sat morning the 3rd of December to pick up everything and pay with a different card. I told him that I would need some sort of ID with the card in the morning and he said that he would have it with him. So, we left the Christmas party and headed to the shop and got there around 6:30 pm. We proceeded to start boxing everything up again and creating carts in our POS for all the boxes.

We worked all night until around 6:30 am and got everything boxed up except for some of the high dollar and some loose items we decided to keep. The man showed up around 9:30 and gave us a new Visa card with his name on it from the same bank and his ID. We took pictures of both just in case and one of us proceeded to help him put boxes in his Suburban while the other ran his card for the transactions. We were able to run the card for 3 carts in total we had created with around 50 items per cart, and when we went to run the card for the 4th cart it declined. We let him know what was going on and he said he would need to call the bank and would let us know what was going on. He went ahead and took boxes for the stuff he had paid for and left to go to a charity event at a motorcycle club. When he left, he left his debit cards and his ID as an assurance he would come back, I verified with him that he would still want the rest of the boxes and he said yes, he would.

We talked to the man on the phone to see what was going on with the bank and he said he was going to need to go up there the next week and get funds moved over so we could run the card for the rest of the stuff. We closed the shop down on Sat Dec 3rd since the majority of our inventory was now in boxes for this man.

Early the next week Dec 4th we texted the man just letting him know to let us know as soon as he was ready to pick up everything. We talked to him on the phone and he said he was working on it. We texted again on the 6th checking on an update. He called and said he was working on getting the cash but needed to come to pick up his ID for the bank. On Wed the 7th of Dec the man came by the shop around noon and picked up his ID and debit cards and handed us a signed blank check for the rest of the inventory letting us know everything should be good to go by early the next week and Merry Christmas. I had let him know it was around $60k and he had said no problem. We went ahead and cashed all the other carts of boxes out for cash in our POS so people wouldn’t buy the items online while all of the items were packed away in boxes for this man. Also by doing this it would take those items out of stock. We put all the receipts in an envelope and wrote the check out for the amount which was $56,400.30 and put the check in our money bag for the shop. I texted the man on the 8th of December letting him know we would deposit the check on Monday the 12th which means it shouldn’t hit his account until Tuesday at the earliest. He texted me back on the 9th letting me know the funds wouldn’t be available till later in the week so I texted him back asking when we should deposit the check Thursday or Friday. I texted again on the 9th asking when we should deposit the check because we are a family on limited funds and were going to work on getting more inventory but didn’t want to do that till we knew when the check would be deposited. We worked all week filling the shop back up the week of the 3rd - the 9th. He told us to deposit it Friday the 16th. We went ahead and opened the shop back up on Friday the 9th of December since we were closed the week of the 3rd – 8th to work on restocking the store. We posted on our social media about all this as well. I tried calling the man just to verify we were going to deposit the check on Friday the 16th and couldn’t reach him so I texted instead letting him know we would be depositing the check on the 16th and we needed to get the funds for the merchandise since this had impacted our shop having to close and shut down everything. He texted back “Sounds good Merry Christmas”. I texted back same to you we will let you know when everything clears and work with you to get all the inventory. He texted back “thank you”.

We texted him Friday the 16th letting him know the deposit was made. On December 17th all the funds from the check were showing in our bank account. Virginia the owner contacted the bank to verify the check had already cleared and was good and the bank had told her everything looked good on their end. We texted the man letting him know everything looked good so we could schedule for him to come to pick up everything.

Because we had been blessed with so much money, we decided to bless others so we went and purchased items, $500 worth of gift cards from a thrift store and other things to give out to the homeless. On Monday the 19th, we spent almost $500 at Ross for toys for a gift-giving event the local YMCA was putting on and dropped those off on Tuesday morning. We also spent $1900 on an estate of packaged collectibles to help restock the store quicker and picked those up Monday. In total, we spent over $4k to do some charity and buy items to help restock the store I didn’t hear back from the man about pick up so texted again on the 19th about scheduling to pick up everything. He called us and let us know on the 19th he could pick up everything on Tuesday the 20th

He texted me at 6 am on Tuesday the 20th letting me know he wasn’t going to make it in the morning and would be there about noon to pick up everything. He showed up a little after noon to pick up all the boxes. We helped him load everything in the back of his box truck recording it all. He left with everything, all the receipts and all the merchandise. Wed the 21st the check came back NSF (Non-Sufficient Funds) and I tried texting him and I even called his local business and talked to his son who runs the day-to-day at the business. His son told me the man had been doing some weird stuff lately but he usually always comes through on what he says. The man called me on the afternoon of the 21st and let me know that there was an issue with a CD he tried to cash out because it had his late wife’s name on it and he had to take her death certificate to the bank and they would put the CD back through and it should be available by Wed the 28th

I tried calling on the 22nd and got no answer so I texted asking if everything was on track for the money to be available by Wed and he texted back “it is”. During this time, we found out from our bank the check was not put on hold like we had asked when it came back NSF the first time they had run it again and it came back again and at that time we would not get the original check back but a copy of it was mailed to us. So, I texted the man Tuesday the 27th asking him to give me a call because I tried calling him multiple times. He texted back “ok that’s what I’ll do” but he never called. I kept trying to call and text to no response. So, I texted again Tuesday the 27th letting him know that the check could not be put back through and at this point, we needed a certified or cashier's check from the bank to verify the funds. He texted back Tue the 27th “I already told you that’s what I’m going to do”. I told him I apologize there must have been some miscommunication because I didn’t remember him telling me that at all. He texted back “no problem”. On Wed Dec 28th we decided to leave the man alone and just wait for him to bring us the certified/cashier's check. He texted us at 1:23 pm that due to us trying to put the check through and everything that all his accounts were frozen and he was trying to get a HELOC and the process couldn’t go through unless he brought us back all the merchandise and he was on his way to our shop with all of the merchandise and he would be there by noon and hope that’s ok. He also said not to call or text him as he is trying to muddle through all this. I was a bit confused cause it was already 1 pm. I responded that was not ok and that all that he had cost us and put us through what he has done. I received no responses and haven’t received a response since then. I called an attorney and had already spoken with the DA’s office in Boulder and both told us to file a police report and get it put over to a detective.

So on Jan 4th, we opened a case with the police. Since that time nothing has been done against the man, and the man's son ended up bringing back almost all the merchandise. We were still missing over $5k worth of product and had to close our business due to closing the store during our busiest month of the year and taking all of our online down as well as spending money on charity and buying more product thinking we had $56k to do so. We recently got the rest of our product back from the Longmont Police but we're informed the Boulder County DA will not be pursuing charges on the man who did this

We opened a new location in May 2023 after having to close at our old location in Feb 2023, the only reason we were able to open a new location was because of all of you wonderful people who donated to our go fund me. We have been at the new location for almost 6 months and now are getting sued by Tebo Properties for $43k for unpaid rent for our old location. We have seen these fundraisers help small businesses get out of a bad situations and that is what we are hoping can happen here. We are a family of 5 and would love to keep our new location open and running for the community. Every bit of the money donated here will go towards helping to fight Tebo Properties from shuttering our business for good. If you do not want to donate but want to help we would love for you to shop our store in Longmont, CO or our website www.stnixstore.com

Thank you so much