A clothing store in Maple Ridge was targeted by thieves twice in one night.
A video posted to Facebook by the owner of Laces Footwear Clothing, Steve Pettit, shows two people wearing hats and hoodies grabbing T-shirts and other clothing items and throwing them into a basket or box before running out of the store at 4:51 a.m. on Aug. 5, one of them with clothing items in his arms.
The whole incident takes place within 30 seconds.
“This is how fast they work,” Pettit said in his online post showing the store’s security video.
Pettit said that his store was hit again two hours later by somebody else and that all the goods stolen are worth $15,000 total.
The first theft included Crooks & Castle T-shirts, Thrasher hoodies and T-shirts, RDS sweatpants and shoes.
“They got all my Headrush gear, which is like $150 hoodies retail,” said Pettit.
The second theft included 15 Nixon watches, with a retail value of $250 to $600 each, and a few expensive sunglasses.
An employee discovered the thefts the next morning.
Pettit posted photographs of the empty shelves and the door at the back of the store in Haney Place Mall, where the thieves gained entrance. The door leads to the corridor in front of the Greg Moore Youth Centre.
“I can’t believe the mall security didn’t notice my door wide open,” he said.
“I am done with it,” added Pettit.
He has only been in the mall for five months and had six “grab-and-dashes” within the first three.
Pettit has insurance, but said dealing with the company is frustrating because he has to itemize a list of stolen goods, including sizes and colours.
“How the hell do you do that? I have more than one store and things get transferred in. All I can do is give them a ballpark figure and they want to know everything. You know, this is more stressful,” he said.
Pettit isn’t going to let this latest theft drive him out of the community.
“I want to make it work because we’re doing well there.”
Ridge Meadows RCMP attended, looking for prints and reviewing the surveillance video. Anyone with more information about the break-in is asked to call police at 604-463-6251.
• Pettit asking anyone with information on the whereabouts of the stolen items to message him on Facebook.
