Burglar targets Miami pawn shop, stealing $100K worth of goods
MIAMI -- A North Miami pawn shop is offering a reward to identify and find the man who broke into the store and stole over $100,000 worth of merchandise, a theft that was caught on surveillance cameras.
The burglar of the Bee Pawn took jewelry and other goods loaned to a pawn shop, and the store's co-owner sounds willing to pay to get everything back as the suspect took something irreplaceable.
"For us, the items returned means the reputation returns," said Lev Troitskyi, managing partner of Bee Pawn, which has several stores in Florida.
People desperate for loans lend the shop personal items as collateral in exchange for cash. Usually, those customers come back for their valuables at a later date.
Last Friday, a man pawned a saw then a person with a very similar description broke into the store hours later, Troitsky said.
Surveillance video showed someone climbing down through ceiling tile near the back room safe. The suspect reached for a ladder which he used to climb down.
The store alarm triggered on and off three times, Troitskyi said. The suspect spent parts of three hours stealing other people's valuables from the safe.
"He went (inside the store) for like 30 or 30 minutes," Troitskyi said. When the alarm sounded "he went out for an hour, walked around the building making sure nobody noticed him. (He came) back again another 45 minutes. Then he goes out again, makes another round around the building then he comes back again for another 40 minutes."
North Miami police have photos and video of the burglar but he is not in custody.
"There were people who saw him," Troitskyi said.
The shop owners believe they have the suspect's name and phone number thanks to the pawn made before the burglary. They even texted the man and asked for the items to be returned, Troitskyi said.
Without the stolen goods, the owners who spent 10 years building clientele could lose long-time customers.
"We will get a new safe, new security system and we'll be over with it," Troitskyi said. "If the items are not returned of course we'll get the replacements and stuff but it is not what people will trust us with afterwards for quite sometime."
The owners said they will give a cash reward to anyone who provides information that leads to the suspect's arrest and the return of the stolen items.