FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Police are searching for two suspects, accused of burglarizing a cigar and wine store in Fort Lauderdale.
The break-in happened on Saturday, at around 2:40 a.m., at Ash & Vine, located at 31 N. Federal Highway.
7News spoke with the store’s owner, Alvaro Cornavaca, Monday morning.
Cornavaca said he got an alert on his phone when the two suspects broke into his store.
“I saw two men entering the building and just, you know, wreaking havoc,” said Cornavaca.
Surveillance footage obtained by 7News, captured the suspects standing outside, near the store’s door. One of the suspects then used something to shatter the front door glass and the two made their way inside.
The two suspects were seen grabbing hundreds of dollars worth of merchandise from the store’s cabinets and putting them inside a bag.
“They went through these cabinets here, so they opened these up, just a little chip here from the screwdriver that they used to open up to avoid their fingerprints,” said Cornavaca.
Cornavaca described what the suspects wore.
“Those two gentlemen, one had his face covered up pretty well, he had a hat and it look like he had a wig or a shirt over, and the other gentlemen just had glasses on,” he said.
Cornavaca said he did not expect this type of thing could happen to him.
“It’s pretty surreal, you know, we see stuff all the time in different places, so it’s always crazy when it happens to you, you know, and it just becomes one of those moments you feel kind of helpless. I just remember driving, you know, through the highway in the middle of the night, you know leaving my family behind and just coming over here, not knowing what to expect. “
The owner believes the thieves were trying to break into the T-Mobile store that is next door to their store but when the phone company’s glass didn’t break, they broke into his store and got whatever they could.
“They were trying to get into T-Mobile next door and they couldn’t get in ’cause they have double-pane glass, and so they just saw the store and they’re, ‘Hey, let’s check out what’s out in here,’ and they came in here,” Cornavaca said. “You can tell they’ve never been here before because they didn’t really know where to look and stuff like that. They were kind of like moseying around and they took a couple things. The alarms went off and they scrammed.”
Cornavaca said he immediately called police and then drove to the store.
After the break-in, there was a mess left at the store and hundreds of dollars of stolen merchandise gone.
“There was obviously glass everywhere, they went through some of our merchandise, took whatever they wanted, so now it’s just a point and time of just cleaning up and just trying to recover from there,” he said. “Thankfully, it wasn’t anything too crazy. We’re going to be able to recover from this fine. It’s not going to be anything really too detrimental, especially to our pockets as a small business owner, you know, this is obviously a setback.”
If you have any information on this crime, call Broward County Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
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