Denver ice cream shop grateful for community support after 5 windows smashed

A Denver small business is recovering after a seemingly random act of vandalism.

Nuggs Ice Cream is on Colfax near the Hale neighborhood. While this summer's heat has certainly been good for the ice cream shop, BRT construction has caused problems for businesses in the area, and now some are dealing with vandalism.

"Maybe they wanted ice cream really bad. But you have to wait until we're open," joked Chris O'Sullivan, owner of Nuggs Ice Cream.

O'Sullivan isn't letting the vandalism of his ice cream shop get him down.

"We've been here for 12 years, never had something like this happen," O'Sullivan said.

He opened Nuggs along with his brother Mike in a former Taco Bell on Colfax. The duo is also behind Brother's Barbecue.

"This was the Taco Bell that we used to go to in high school," O'Sullivan said. "We looked at it and said, let's open a little ice cream shop for the neighborhood."

Friday morning, O'Sullivan got a call from an employee who'd shown up to the shop to find shattered windows and broken glass. A look at their security cameras told the story of what happened.

"He just picked up the rocks like footballs and just chucked them through the windows for no reason," O'Sullivan said. "It was just someone maybe having obviously a bad day and a mental health crisis and was doing something that we have no idea why."

Around 6 a.m., video footage shows a man throwing several rocks, smashing four windows and one of the ice cream shop's glass doors.

"I was angry. I wasn't happy about it by any means, but that quickly shifted to, ' Okay, now, what do we do going forward? What's the solution?'" O'Sullivan said.

O'Sullivan didn't miss a beat. He cleaned up the glass, called a company to board up the windows, and opened the shop on time.

Nuggs is not letting the vandalism shatter their business. They posted online to let customers know they were still open, and were shocked by the response.

"People messaging us, and what can they do? Can they help clean up? Can they give us money for new windows?" O'Sullivan said. "I didn't realize how positively people would respond to this. Like, 'Hey, we don't allow this to happen in our community. We don't allow it to affect us.' There's tons of people in here now. There's people coming in all day long, and we're getting messages saying, 'Hey, we're bringing 40, 50 people next week on a bike.'"

"I had read about the vandalism online, and I called, and they said they were open, so we wanted to come support them," said customer and neighbor Ilana Rubin.

Saturday, many customers came in specifically because of the vandalism.

"It seemed pretty senseless that someone would just come and do that. And obviously, with the construction on Colfax, all the businesses here are really suffering. So you know, to add another barrier for people, or a reason why they have to spend money, that just stinks," Rubin said. "We just want to make sure that nobody's coming through our neighborhood and throwing rocks at businesses. That's just not the kind of neighborhood that we live in here and want to be part of."

O'Sullivan says insurance and his landlord are covering the near $10,000 cost of new windows, which have already been ordered.

He reported the incident to police and says they told him the person had vandalized other businesses in the area the same day. Denver police have not yet responded to CBS Colorado's request to confirm this.

"Things like this happen. But the coolest thing that we saw was the community support around this," O'Sullivan said. "It does warm your heart, and it makes this a positive in that regard."