Violeta Gavrilovich greets everyone who walks through the door of her hat and shoe store along Denver’s 16th Street Mall.

“Anything you need, dear, anything you need help with at all,” she repeats with a wave.

It’s an effort to impart the “Aloha spirit.” She and her husband previously operated the store in Hawaii.

“Thank you, thank you,” she says when customers leave, regardless of whether they bought anything.

But behind the go-to phrases, there’s anxiety. Violeta Gavrilovich looks worried when the door swings open and relieved when shoppers leave.

Every week, she said, people rob Aloha Hat & Sole. She said vagrants along the downtown pedestrian mall watch the store and learn her routines and those of her staff, then run in and grab a stack of Stetsons that could be worth thousands.

See Full Page