“We hope to find who did this,” said business owner Justin Peoples. “They deserve to be punished. You can't get away with it.”
Peoples said the thieves grabbed all of the high-end smartphones, such as iPhones. He said the stolen items are worth approximately $7,000 to $10,000, and he expects them to end up on the streets on black market.
“It's definitely a hot business,” Peoples said. “A lot of money involved, a lot of people want a piece of the pie.”
Peoples has eight security cameras hooked up in his store and somehow the bad guys disabled them and they used rock to break through the front window.
“I have eight cameras in here, you know, I didn't think they'd have the guts to come in here like that,” Peoples said.
Investigators hope something is left on the security camera hard drive so they can use it to find those responsible for the crime. Peoples said he fears more stores may get hit as thieves hope to cash in especially during the holiday shopping season.
“It's getting bigger and bigger,” Peoples said. “We're hearing these stores get hit all over town, not just me, major cell phone companies like Sprint, Verizon, AT&T. They're just bashing in the windows and taking their phones too, brand new in box.”
Peoples warns anyone looking for a deal on websites like Craigslist and EBay.
“Phones can get sold to you off Craigslist at McDonalds, and you may get the phone
and it could get shut off the very next day,” Peoples said.
Police said they are working every lead. Just three weeks ago, a Sprint store was his on the east side and the thieves got away with about $25,000 worth of phones.
