NORTH MIAMI, FLA. (WSVN) - A North Miami pawn shop is out a hefty sum of watches, gold, jewelry and money after, a manager said, a burglar broke in and emptied the safe.
Speaking with 7News on Wednesday, Lev Troitskyi, a managing partner at Bee Pawn along Northwest Seventh Avenue, said the perpetrator broke in through the roof, early Friday morning.
“All together, the robbery started at 4:51 a.m.,” said Troitskyi. “That’s where he basically opened the ceiling.”
All together because, Troitskyi said, the roof robber dropped down through the ceiling a total of three times.
“When the guy first broke into, he spent the first hour breaking into that safe.,” said Troitskyi. “All the employees knew that it’s empty. It’s just the one that we use to distract the attention.”
Once the subject finished breaking into the decoy safe, Troitskyi said, the store’s alarm went off.
The thief was captured on surveillance video as he went up and out and walked around outside.
However, Troitskyi said, there was an issue with the alarm that prevented it from alerting police, so the burglar, seen wearing a red shirt, went back in once he felt the coast was clear.
“On his like second entrance, he tries to open – he breaks into the cage, and then he starts breaking the doors, drilling the lock inside and opening the safe,” said Troitskyi.
The burglar was finally getting closer to the goods, but before he finally ran off with his riches, the alarm went off one more time, so he got up and went out again, only to come back a third time.
Troitskyi said the subject made out with $160,000 worth of jewelry, watches and money.
But the employee said he’s certain this thief won’t get away with this for long.
“All the time, he was wearing the long-sleeved shirt on his face, wrapped around his head. It fell down a few times, so we have a clear shot of the person’s face,” he said.
A person who looks all too familiar to the Bee Pawn staff. Troitskyi said that his team believes this ceiling stealer came into the store Thursday and sold them a saw.
Meaning they got the fingerprints, ID and number of the person who came in Thursday and have tried to contact him repeatedly.
“He reads the messages ’cause like, iPhone tells, you know, if it’s delivered or read already,” said Troitskyi, “so it always says ‘read’ after like an hour, but he doesn’t pick up.”
But Troitskyi and his team hope this message isn’t left on read.
“We just want everything back. We have your face, we have your fingerprint, we have your ID,” he said. “Reach out to us, return the things.”
Troitskyi said this break-in especially hurts because of how hard they’ve worked to build customers’ trust for them to leave their belongings to them.
“He stole other people’s belongings that they trusted us with,” he said. “This is the most disturbing part because we, first don’t want to lose the trust of our customers, and I don’t want to hurt anybody who, you know, values his items that were stolen by the person, and like, no insurance will replace that.”
The store’s staff have even texted the subject that they would give him cash for the items back but have not received a response, so now they’re offering cash to anyone who has information that leads to an arrest.
If you have any information on this burglary or the subject’s whereabouts, call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at 305-471-TIPS. Remember, you can always remain anonymous, and you may be eligible for a reward of up to $5,000.
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