PORTLAND -- For Megan Collins a summer internship at Cloth and Canvas on NE Fremont was a dream come true. The last thing on her mind was becoming the victim of a crime.
"It's one of those real frustrating things that you can't trust everyone in the world anymore," said Collins.
Collins learned that the hard way. She was alone in the store on Tuesday when a teen customer walked in. Minutes later, she said the teen ducked into the dressing room.
"I had moved the chair to this side here and when I wasn't paying attention he had to reach over and grab it," said Collins.
Gone in seconds was Collins' iPhone. It was a big loss for the apparel design major.
"I had the last picture of my uncle who recently died on there," said Collins. "It's stuff like that, that is really frustrating."
Collins was not the only one frustrated. Cell phones have also been ripped off from nearby Shop Adorn and A Children's Place Bookstore.
"I struggle to make a living here and keep my shop alive," said Pam Lewis of A Children's Place. "It's really just mean."
The cell phones vanished around the same time and from the same area where two men were robbed at gunpoint earlier in the week. Detectives were not connecting the cases, but business owners were.
"I mean it's all similar-ish things," said Julia Garey of Cloth and Canvas.
In the end, it hits too close to home, especially for Collins, who came to Portland and Cloth and Canvas to follow a dream.
"My mom always makes fun of me for being too trusting," said Collins. "Obviously it bit me in the butt."
Anyone with information about the cell phone thefts or the armed robberies in the NE Fremont area, around NE 40th to NE 45th, was urged to call the Portland Police Bureau.
