Customers in Guthrie finally get their items back

GUTHRIE, Okla. (KFOR) - After months — and in some cases a year or more — of waiting, customers in Guthrie are finally getting back the items they left with The Leather Shop.

We first told you about The Leather Shop in 2008, when our In Your Corner team investigated lost leather goods.

Last month, more complaints. At that time, the owner of the shop promised he would open on October 15.

News 4 stopped by early Wednesday morning, along with customers waiting to retrieve their items.

At 9 a.m., the door was locked, and in the window was a sign with the new store hours.

"Same run around, same problems," said Blaze Knell, his father's boots are in the shop.

Knell and others were waiting outside for the doors to open. Knell's says his father's boots have been in the shop for almost a year.

"Just like to get my dad's boots back. I'd like to see everybody else get their stuff back," said Knell.

Finally, just after 9:30, the door opened.

One customer got a pair of boots back. The owner of The Leather Shop, Bobby Cain, said, "Don't bother coming back," to the customer as he walked out.

News 4 spoke to Cain after.

"I got sick," said Cain. "I fell into a dark hole, and I was snapping at customers and not doing things, not conducting business the best way that I could, and the best way I knew how to deal with it was to step away."

He showed us around his shop and explained that he is a one-man band. He added that he also spends time at the Guthrie Fairgrounds Arena, where he does custom leather work for winners at rodeo events.

"I try to pick days that I work on each individual deal," said Cain. "If I'm working on boots, I can't do saddles for custom work. If I'm working on saddles, I can't do custom remote work. If I'm doing custom work, I can't do boots or saddles. How do you juggle that? I do it the best way I know."

Despite waiting nearly a year, Knell says he's just happy his dad got his boots back.

"He's glad to have the boots back; it's just the fact that we had to go this far to get them," said Knell.

Cain says he has new story hours and will be open Tuesday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

He says between leather repairs and custom work, he has roughly 400 projects to complete.