A time for sorrow

Published 10:07 pm Sunday, May 16, 2010

At 3 p.m. last Tuesday, a wall model at Country Clock Shop in Everett gently cooed “Killing Me Softly With His Song.”

It bravely held its post amid the wreckage.

A truck with one or more crooks backed through the store’s front wall and windows at 5:30 a.m. May 1. It crushed grandfather clocks and stopped atop a glass display case. Screeching tires left disgusting black marks embedded in the carpeting.

Sgt. Robert Goetz with the Everett Police Department said the truck, stolen out of Marysville, was later found abandoned. No arrests have been made.

Fred Kiesel, who owns the shop with his wife, Helen, learned of the destruction by phone calls from police and his alarm company. As he drove to the shop from his home in Tulalip, he contemplated picking up plywood at a hardware store to seal up the front of his business. The damage was too severe for homemade repairs.

Stately clocks were tossed aside, like building blocks by a rampaging toddler.

“They really wanted to get in here,” said Richard Graham. “It’s so sad to see a smashed grandfather clock.”

Graham, 71, retired several months ago, but rushed back to his old job to help during the crisis.

“We think they cased the store,” he said.

If there is anything amusing about the situation, it’s that the thief or thieves scrambled over watches valued up to $800 to snatch the $200 models.

Kiesel, 68, is a former Navy man who worked for the government as a computer programmer. He taught himself how to repair clocks, and started a home business in 1987. He opened his first shop in Marysville in 1991, then relocated to Everett in 1995. He spent upwards of $35,000 remodeling the former piano store.

Last week, behind the sales counter, plastic tails on kitschy Kit-Cat Clocks wagged in unison with their shifty eyes. Kiesel said he was delighted that his ATMOS perpetual-motion clock survived the mayhem. Both clock men said they feel violated that the shop was desecrated.

“We’ve both lost sleep over this,” Graham said. “You can’t get it out of your mind.”

Graham, who lives in Mukilteo, worked for 19 years at A House of Clocks in Lynnwood. He attended the same Seattle grade school as Kiesel.

Four months after he retired from the Lynnwood store, Kiesel took Graham out for an unusual job interview. Kiesel flew the pair in his airplane to Orcas Island for lunch. When the meal was over, they shook hands and went to work together.

Graham’s friend, Mark Hinricksen from Marysville, said the clock guru also is a horticulturist and mushroom expert.

“To say his interests are eclectic is an understatement,” Hinricksen said. “I’m sure if Dick woke up tomorrow morning and decided to be a nuclear physicist, by next week he would be lecturing at Harvard.”

The morning of the smash-and-grab, Kiesel called his buddy, Graham, who arrived in work clothes, with his camera, and pitched right in. Despite the damage they kept the shop open that day.

His customers are special folks, Kiesel said.

“I’ve only been given one bad check the whole time I’ve been in business.”

His insurance company hired a restoration crew the morning of the incident and they made temporary repairs. Kiesel was able to lock up and go home that Saturday night.

There was some good luck. The only clock in for repairs suffered just a dab of damage. All the ruined clocks belonged to Kiesel.

“It seems so stupid to see the carnage,” he said. “It’s so senseless.”

Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451, oharran@heraldnet.com.

Help the police

If you have information about the Country Clock Shop break-in, please call the police tip line at 425-257-8450.