A Portland, Oregon, small business owner’s series of unfortunate events led him to give back to his community.
According to Fox 12 Oregon, Blane Hartleb, the owner of Outrageous Audio, detailed how his business was broken into twice in the span of a month.
“The first, the warehouse we had that broken into, all the locks were damaged. And then a month later, we had our front door kicked in,” he said.
Hartleb noted the store has been running for 37 years. “Started when I was a teenager,” he added.
The company sells car stereos, remote starts, security systems, video systems, and lighting systems, high-end equipment that easily adds up.
The costs of recovering from the break-ins were frustrating Hartleb until another small business owner swooped in to save the day.
Hartleb noted that after the local news reported on the break-ins, “Matt from Town & Country Glass. He goes, you know, I just want to pay it forward, I own a small business here in Portland. And I want to take care of the glass.”
“I couldn’t believe it, all of us were shocked,” Hartleb went on.
It was this random act of kindness which inspired Hartleb to also help others.
On Monday, he donated $5,000 to the Humane Society and is set to donate another $5,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
This is due to a new program Hartleb created where Outrageous Audio donates $5 for every review their business receives, whether it is positive or not.
He stated, “We had 1,035 new reviews, so that’s $5,175 going to each.”
“We take care of our little area in Rockwood and doing things like this. You know, the bad things are going to happen. It’s OK, you don’t focus on them, let’s focus on the good things,” he concluded.