MacTavish’s hit by another crime

Co-owner of sporting-goods store questions its future in downtown due to ongoing issues

A sporting-goods store that suffered fire damage in an alleged arson last week was the site of a break-in over the weekend, and a co-owner of the business is questioning if it can reopen in the downtown area.

MacTavish’s Source for Sports - a sporting-goods retailer that’s operated in downtown Fredericton since 1968 - fell victim to what police call a deliberately set fire Tuesday night.

MacTavish’s Source for Sports has been boarded up since a fire Oct. 29. It fell victim to a break-in early Sunday morning. (Photo: Submitted/Bill Hunt)

The warehouse section at the rear of the business sustained extensive damage, as did the rear of the store itself, and all of the merchandise was destroyed or suffered smoke and water damage.

A local transient - Joshua Daniel Grant Burden, 49 - has been charged with arson and breach of probation as a result of the blaze, and he’s due to appear in Fredericton provincial court again Monday for a bail hearing.

But adding to the business’s woes on the weekend was another apparent crime.

Co-owner Maggie MacTavish took to social media Sunday to express her frustrations over another incident, also the alleged result of a homeless person’s actions.

“I received a call last night that yet another transient man has been arrested for breaking and entering into our already destroyed and boarded-up building,” she wrote in a Facebook post that’s been widely shared.