Smash and grab burglaries leave several Baltimore businesses damaged
BALTIMORE -- The trend of smash-and-grab crimes in Baltimore has left store owners with new problems in familiar places.
For example, early Tuesday morning, officers on patrol in the southwestern part of the city were sent to the 3400 block of Wilkens Avenue for a report of disorderly behavior.
When they arrived, they learned that multiple people had broken into a commercial business using a brick to damage a glass door and gain access to the property inside, according to a police report.
Investigators learned that three males wearing hoodies and gloves entered the business and took off with the cash register, more than 50 electronic cigarettes, and multiple boxes of cigarette rollers, per the police report.
They also grabbed a trash can on their way out, according to the police report.
They were last seen headed eastbound in a red SUV, the police report said.
The 3400 block of Wilkens Avenue is across the street from Ascension St. Agnes Hospital. Last week, officers got into a scuffle with a shoplifter at the shopping center across from the hospital that led one of them to fire their department weapon and two of them in need of medical attention.
The officers had been investigating a robbery that had happened there when "their attention was drawn to the 7-Eleven where an individual was shoplifting," according to authorities.
The shoplifter, a man by the name of Alex Husson whom police eventually tracked down to Ellicott City, dragged one officer and struck another while trying to flee, according to charging documents obtained by WJZ.
Husson was charged with two counts of first-degree attempted murder, two counts of first-degree assault and two counts of second-degree assault. He confessed to stealing a bottle of coconut water, per the charging documents.
WJZ reporter Paul Gessler noted that some of the businesses had been damaged. One of them had its glass door covered with plywood.
Acting Police Commissioner Richard Worley told reporters at a press conference following the scuffle that there had been a string of commercial burglaries at Wilkens Plaza in recent weeks. He said the pattern of burglaries involved people throwing bricks through storefronts and stealing cash registers.
WJZ tracked other recent smash-and-grab burglaries at local businesses and obtained video showing criminals scoring cash at a nail salon on York Road late last week.
The suspect used a big rock to break the glass, according to Inspire Nail Bar manager Dao Phan.
They moved quickly, targeting the cash register, taking money from it, and leaving within three minutes, Phan said.
Down the street, Vito's Pizza Shop was ransacked, too. in that case, the suspect got away with $2,000, according to a police report.
Last year, WJZ reported on several smash-and-grab burglaries along York Road near the boundary that divides Baltimore from Baltimore County. Criminals targeted storefront businesses in the Belvedere area and at Anneslie Shopping Center. A few hours later, there were reports of similar incidents in South Baltimore near Cherry Hill.