With two burglaries at Buckeye Books, the store’s owner is concerned another robbery may happen, and the police have no solid leads.
Paul Lazarro, a manager at Buckeye Books, said a white, stocky male was caught on videotape breaking into the store around 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The man, who gained entrance to the store through the service doors, was filmed for about four minutes stealing cash from the registers.
“He broke them open by smashing them through the glass on the counter,” he said.
This incident came just two days after another burglary.
Phil Smyers, owner of Buckeye Books, said he believes the two burglaries were related.
“We are pretty sure it’s the same person,” he said. “From the waist up, he looked the same and had the same M.O.”
Smyers said on the second break-in, the thief went for registers that had not been touched from the previous burglary.
About $800 total was stolen from the store during the burglaries.
Damages included the service entrance doors, a glass counter and the front glass doors.
The owner said he is worried it may happen again and is taking some added precautions.
“We have already installed more cameras in better positions in the store,” he said. “Also, we are going to make sure the registers are empty when we close every night.”
Sgt. Dwayne Hall, an officer with the Columbus Division of Police, said cases like this are often unsolvable.
“With business burglaries that have no solvability right off the bat, there’s not a lot we can do,” he said.
Hall said the man was caught on tape makes a big difference in launching an investigation, but many times a picture is not much more than a start.
“We will have the video enhanced to see if we have any record of the burglar. If we don’t, then we usually send the picture to Channel 6 Crimestoppers,” he said.
