Surveillance Tape Shows Burglars Who Steal $100,000 Worth Of Plumbing Equipment
NORTHWEST MIAMI-DADE (CBSMiami) - The owner of a well-known Miami-Dade plumbing business is appealing for the public's help after he says surveillance tape captures burglars stealing $100,000 worth of equipment from his business.
"They need to be taken care of. This is not fair," said Kenny Kotalik, who has owned Miami Shores Plumbing for the past 30 years.
Kotalik told CBS4's Peter D'Oench, "It's horrible. It takes a lot of money to keep the trucks on the road, to have this happen. Last year they took a whole vehicle. It's tough on my insurance. It is not a good feeling."
"It's the sewer equipment, the hand tools, the power tools and copper. They even took a sewer camera and they knew exactly what it was worth to pawn for it or take it to the flea market. They were very well educated on what they wanted," said Kotalik.
"They hit electrical trucks and a/c trucks," he said. "They knew what they were looking for. They were brazen. It's unbelievable the risks they were taking and what they will do. And they had bad habits."
The surveillance tape released by Kotalik shows what he believes are two young men rifling through four trucks. He said they used a ladder to scale a fence and then cross over barbed wire at his business at 900 N.W. 144th Ave.
The surveillance tape shows the criminals arriving at 1:03 a.m. last Friday and Kotalik said they were at the business for at least an hour.
"These trucks take $20,000 to $30,000 just to stock with equipment," he said. "This is just terrible how some of them were broken into like this. They used a crow bar on one of my trucks but they were not able to get inside of it so they moved on to other trucks in the lot."
"This is the first time in my 30 years here that my business has been burglarized," he said. "I have had trucks stolen and vandalized but never anything like this."
"I have alerted at least one flea market to be on the lookout for this equipment," said Kotalik. "Hopefully someone will tell us they have seen our equipment. A lot of it is engraved with our name: Miami Shores Plumbling."
Kotalik said Miami-Dade Police have dusted his burglarized vehicles for fingerprints but said he had not heard if detectives had any leads on this case.
Miami-Dade Police have so far not released any information about this case.
Anyone with information is urged to call Miami-Dade Police or Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).