Business & Tech

Good Samaritans Fix Window, Protect Bikes at Proteus After Storm

College Park employee mends damages and cleans floor for local businesses after Hurricane Irene.

Jill DiMauro wasn’t sure what to expect as she rushed from her home in Baltimore to her bike shop in College Park.

It was the Sunday morning after Hurricane Irene passed through the area, and a former employee called to tell her that the front window of her shop was shattered. 

“You could just lean in and take thousands of dollars worth of bikes. I thought I’d get here and it’d be empty,” DiMauro said.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

But by the time DiMauro arrived at the bike shop around 10:40 a.m., not only was all the merchandise still in the store but a team of locals was guarding the shattered window.

The glass was cleaned up, and the gaping hole in the front of the shop was boarded.

Interested in local real estate?Subscribe to Patch's new newsletter to be the first to know about open houses, new listings and more.

“It was 80 percent done,” DiMauro said.

Among the do-gooders was Paul Mason, 61, the head technician of appliances at TV Appliance Repair near Proteus.

He called the police after noticing the broken window at about 9 a.m. and then kept an eye on the shop.

“Once police came, everyone started showing up,” Mason said.

Five or six customers and employees from Proteus and neighboring businesses took it upon themselves to make sure no one broke into the store and to clean up the mess.

Mason even provided the materials to board up the shop. Before that day, DiMauro and Mason had never even met.

“I felt like the shop would have been taken care of, even if we didn’t show up,” said Proteus employee Anthony Reiss.

DiMauro guessed the repairs would be about $500, but that is miniscule compared to what she estimates to be more than $100,000 worth of merchandise that could have been stolen.

Proteus was open for business by Monday, once the power was back on, mostly due to Mason’s help. But his day’s work wasn’t done after boarding up the window.

“After I finished at the bike shop, I helped Miss Wood get the water out of her shop,” Mason said.

Next door at , the power outage knocked out the sump pump, and the floor flooded.

“[Mason] actually called me at home on Sunday morning to let me know it had flooded,” said Barbara Wood, storeowner and Mason’s landlord.

He then helped push water out the door and move furniture.

“Mason stayed with us for quite a while. It was a big help,” Wood said.

It’s this kind of community support that the Proteus employees said the shop thrives on, but still, it’s not entirely expected.

“I honestly thought it was a little surprising that people would do that,” employee Yo Kumm said.


Get more local news delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for free Patch newsletters and alerts.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here