A Guelph nightclub owner says he is relieved after a stolen laptop with business plans to help weather the pandemic was returned to him on Tuesday.
Bilay Badoe is the co-owner of Onyx Nightclub in Guelph's downtown. On Tuesday he left a backpack with his laptop on the stairwell while he was getting ready to leave after a meeting with his business partners.
“When we came back in — it had to be three to five minutes — I was like ‘oh my bag is gone, did you guys move my bag?'" Said Badoe.
After retracing his steps, Badoe realized someone had come inside and taken the backpack.
The work laptop was filled with plans for an expansion of Onyx, including designs for a new stage and details of a new partnership with Frank & Steins, which is directly below the Wyndham Street club.
“Your laptop is your life, especially your work laptop,” said Badoe.
Like most businesses, Onyx has faced challenge after challenge during the various waves of the pandemic. At every turn Badoe and his partners, Michael Falcioni, Eddie Collins and Cindy Collins, have pivoted to survive.
“We have been doing so much work over COVID and building stuff and pivoting and ideas that we have — all of that is on there too,” said Badoe. “Sure you have backups, but the thought of losing your laptop and it has all of your passwords on it and all kinds of stuff on it — my laptop is everything.”
Badoe said he was immediately bummed out after the theft and thought his laptop was gone forever.
“I thought I would never get the laptop back, but my business partners were like ‘no, we should go looking for it.’"
Police were called about an hour after the theft and surveillance footage was accessed from Onyx and a neighbouring bar, offering clear pictures of the people who were in the alley around the time the laptop was taken. Badoe posted the photos to his social media to help cast a wider net to find the men.
“Because we are downtown all of the time we knew where to look around — there’s certain places unfortunately that those people hang out at — so we found one of the guys,” said Badoe.
Police were called and the person was questioned, but did not have the laptop.
In an email, Guelph police spokesperson Scott Tracey said the first man was 'identified elsewhere in the downtown' but it was determined he was not involved in the theft and he was released unconditionally.
“For whatever reason we all decided to drive a weird way home and we saw the other guy crossing the street,” said Badoe.
Although he also did not have the laptop, the lead was promising.
“After realizing we have pictures of him on camera and with the bag and there is a massive amount of people looking for him, he was like, ‘I’ll get the laptop back,’” said Badoe.
He credits his business partners, the Guelph police and his neighbouring businesses for the speedy return of the laptop only a few hours after it was stolen.
“It really shows how our downtown community — even though we fight at times — we do really come together and take care of each other and stuff like that. That’s really cool,” said Badoe.
Tracey said the return of the laptop was a positive outcome.
“Timely reporting and a good description of the involved males provided by the victim allowed officers to locate the males within 90 minutes from the crime being reported,” said Tracey.
A 30-year-old Guelph man was charged with break, enter and commit theft. He is scheduled to appear in court Sept. 3.
Although he got lucky with the speedy return of his laptop, Badoe knows that isn’t usually the case with stolen goods.
“I highly advise people don’t go looking for their stolen property — it’s not something safe to do,” he said.
When the pandemic forced Onyx to stop in-person nightclub activities, the business began live-streaming performances for people to watch in the comfort of their own homes and last year when venues were briefly allowed small crowds of 50 people or less Badoe said tickets did not last long.
Onyx hosted Guelph Black Heritage Society, drag events with Crystal Quartz, Drip or Drown hip hop shows, among others.
“We were up to about four or five events a week,” said Badoe. “The highlights for me is the amount of feedback and back and forth that is going on within the community. “People are talking and listening and understanding. It’s been really cool like that.”
