Mass. liquor store owner grateful after patrons rally to help clean trashed shop

December 31, 2024

0 1 minute read

The owner of a Massachusetts liquor store is feeling grateful despite an incident over the weekend in which vandals destroyed his business, smashing hundreds of bottles of alcohol just before New Year’s Eve.

“I just want you to see what I’m walking into in my store this morning,” Bill Buco, the owner of McAloon’s Liquors at 531 Chickering Road in North Andover, said in an Instagram post on Sunday. “Someone in their brilliant mind decided to come in last night and trash the store. For what reason? I don’t know.”

The North Andover Police Department confirmed that investigators are looking to track down whoever is responsible for leaving the aisles McAloon’s littered with smashed bottles.

McAloon’s Liquors/Instagram

“My liquor, my floor, my shelving. We just did this all over. It was all brand new,” Buco said in the video as he stepped over piles of broken glass and puddles of wine.

It didn’t take Buco long to clean the mess because loyal customers flocked to help him with mops and brooms in hand.

“There’s so much love in this community. My phone’s been ringing off the hook,” Buco said in a follow-up post. “People are coming in with brooms, mops, you name it…As bad as this way, the beauty in what I’m seeing now buries what happens.”

“I just can’t thank you all enough. God bless you all,” Buco added.

Buco has run the liquor store for more than 45 years, his Instagram bio indicates.

Anyone with information on the vandalism is urged to contact North Andover Police Detective Dan Furman at 978-683-3168.