Burglars take $12,000 from store’s safe
REDSTONE TWP. – The usually busy parking lot at the Grindstone Foodland was empty Monday, with store employees outside the store to let customers know that the store had been robbed overnight and would be closed all day Monday. According to state police Trooper James Monkelis, someone cut the telephone lines to the business to silence the alarm system, and then pried open the steel door at the rear of the store. He said a bread delivery driver noticed the damage around 6 a.m. Monday. Monkelis said the store had closed at 4 p.m. on Sunday and while it is most likely that the burglary occurred during the night, police would be checking with the phone company to see if there is a record of when the line was cut. A Verizon repairman was on the scene Monday afternoon.
Monkelis said the object of the burglary was to obtain money, with some $12,000 taken from the store’s safe.
“This was a professional job. These guys spent several hours in the store,” Monkelis said. “These were like safe crackers figuring out the combination. In this particular case, they used some type of cutting tool like a grinder, then pried at the door until it opened.”
Monkelis said there are video cameras in the store, but the burglars took the videotapes from the store.
“They actually went into the office and yanked the VCR’s,” Monkelis said.
While there was a case of beverages spilled in the store after it was struck with a forklift, though it did not appear as if the thieves intended to vandalize the store.
“For the most part, they came and pealed the safe and left,” Monkelis said.
Monkelis is asking members of the public who may have noticed anything to contact the police. He said the burglars might have been in the store or at other local businesses in the days immediately preceding the burglary in order to case the store. Monkelis said surveillance tapes from surrounding businesses are being studied, though most of the businesses only have internal security cameras. He said one outside surveillance camera does show part of Route 40, though the information is limited.
“We gathered a lot of potential evidence that we have to have analyzed,” Monkelis said.