Owner traps intruder in Wichita winery. But there was a lot of damage before police arrived

A downtown Wichita winery was ransacked Tuesday night, causing damages the owner estimates to be around $26,000.

Jenny Dawn Cellars owner Jennifer McDonald said the destruction is everywhere: standing water, broken door and bottles, a fire extinguisher spray that compromised an estimated $10,000 of unfinished wine. McDonald said the intruder, who she and her husband trapped inside with their truck until police arrived about 37 minutes after being called, had odd motives.

“He was really interested in our apparel, so he had rounded up several of my Jenny Dawn Cellars purple polos and was trying to steal those … and then we have umbrellas, tents and he had all of that kind of packed up like he was trying to steal that,” she said.

Colby Michael Clem, 33, was arrested on suspicion of burglary, criminal damage to property, obstruction and drug paraphernalia, police said. He was also was arrested in connection with an aggravated burglary case from Nov. 25 near Morris and Pattie, police said.

McDonald, who opened the winery area of Union Station in December 2019, said she first got an alert from her security system around 10 p.m. about a possible break-in. She initially thought it was a false alarm or that employees who just left had tripped the alarm.

She asked an employee to go back and check, just to make sure. That employee found someone had taken an umbrella base and smashed it through the glass patio door. The suspect was still inside.

McDonald and her husband drove from their house and parked their truck in front of the door, trapping the suspect inside.

“It took about an hour for police to get out here,” she said. Sedgwick County Emergency Communications records show it actually was 37 minutes until police arrived. That’s still a lot of time for a top priority call.

Police found the man barricaded in her office, she said. By the time they were able to get into the business, a lot of damage had been done.

McDonald said he turned on the faucet and broke the pipe in the event center section that opened earlier this year.

“Just the destruction of property, it makes no sense that he turned on the water and let it run for an hour,” she said.

“There’s standing water in my winery.”

She says he also destroyed her laptop, printer and security equipment in her office, smashed wine bottles and drank some of the liquor they keep in stock. But the most extensive damage was in the cellar.

Trapped and trying to find an escape, she says the man tried to climb a shelf and leave through the ceiling. He knocked a couple of cases of wine off the shelf, valued at $500, but the largest damage came when he sprayed the fire extinguisher.

“I don’t know why he started messing with the fire extinguisher because that has been what caused quite a bit of damage,” she said, adding it ruined an estimated $10,000 in unfinished wine and $3,000 in empty bottles.

McDonald said Wednesday morning that she hadn’t started to clean up until an insurance agent had arrived to see what happened. She hopes to be back open for business by Friday. She said the “silver lining” to reopening is that the tasting room is still intact.

Even with insurance, she said the losses will be big for a newer and small business.

“As a small business, we run on very lean margins,” she said. “We just appreciate the community support at this time ... shutting down your business is never ideal so we just ask people to shop online with us, go out to a local liquor store and buy a bottle of our wine. We just appreciate everyone’s support at this time.”

This story was originally published December 7, 2022 at 2:53 PM.