One night in late July, two people threw bricks through the shop windows of Moo Moo Cows. A week later, three people smashed in the glass again. Late last week, just days after the shop celebrated five years in business, someone broke a window and threw paint inside.

Online, theories swirled about who might want to attack the Federal Hill ice cream shop — and why. Yelp recently named the parlor one of the country’s best. “Somebody is big jealous,” a customer commented on Facebook. Some suggested a dispute between the ice cream shop owners, who are also prominent realtors, and others in the neighborhood.

The three attacks in less than a month have cost the owners of the Light Street shop around $13,000 in damages and caused a lot of stress. After the last incident on Aug. 26, Will Runnebaum and Bill Mangham shut down the store for a week to clean and to process.

“We’re very glad to be back open,” Mangham said Wednesday, minutes after the store reopened to customers as he and Runnebaum took orders. “We hope the perpetrators are caught.”

Detective Niki Fennoy, a spokeswoman for the Baltimore Police Department, said the “investigation into the destruction of the property of this business remains ongoing and active.” Mangham said that police and the larger community had both been helpful throughout the incidents. “Obviously there’s bigger issues in Baltimore City,” he said. “They’re sending in the National Guard, supposedly.”

Still, the events at Moo Moo Cows have rattled some in Baltimore, including Councilman Zac Blanchard, who represents the area. “It’s clearly targeted vandalism,” said Blanchard, suggesting that the incidents possibly amounted to “a hate crime against a beloved pro-gay establishment.”

Runnebaum and Mangham are married and the business sports a rainbow flag above the entrance. Mangham said he doesn’t think that’s the case, though; he said he and his husband have lived in the area for 25 years and never encountered any hostility.

The vandalism has horrified regulars, too. Customer Theresa Ignatowski, who has known the owners for years, dabbed tears from her eyes Wednesday as she ate a bratwurst topped with sauerkraut (she doesn’t have much of a sweet tooth). “I thought it was terrible,” she said of the attacks. “They’re wonderful people.”

Evan McMurry and his family started frequenting the shop soon after it opened in 2020. New to town and isolated from friends and neighbors during the pandemic, they found more there than just great ice cream. Whenever they visited, Runnebaum and Mangham would come outside and chat with them so they could talk and eat without masks.

Until then, McMurry and his wife were on the fence about whether Charm City was right for them. Meeting Runnebaum and Mangham “had an outsized influence on our decision to stay,” McMurry said. Though he and his family now live in Charles Village, they still make an effort to come to Moo Moo Cows often, including after one of the recent attacks. “It felt like these vandals are attacking what’s best about Baltimore, he said.

The owner of a pizzeria on Cross Street said the attacks at Moo Moo Cow represent a larger issue for Federal Hill. Andrew Wheeler of Locals Only said he’s recently seen an uptick in crimes like people drinking in public, smoking weed and selling drugs, which he says have contributed to more serious crimes, like a shooting in July that injured a 39 year-old-woman. “All of these little things add up,” he said. He blames police — and some of his fellow business owners — for not doing enough to curb bad behavior.

But Blanchard, who’s spent time over the last two months walking around the bar district late at night on weekends said things are getting better. He’s also optimistic that a new Baltimore Police unit created to patrol entertainment hubs will help matters even more. “We’ve definitely seen improvement,” he said.

This article has been updated with the correct spelling of Evan McMurry's name.