CYPRESS LAKE, Fla. — Broken glass covered the floor outside of the Fort Myers Family Hardware store Friday morning after two masked thieves broke in and stole power tools before driving off.
It was not a welcome sight for owner Jeremy Peterson, he was awoken at 4:30 a.m.
“People steal stuff when we’re open in broad daylight, but never like this,” Peterson said.
All 45 seconds were caught on a security camera. It shows these masked bandits smashing the door and climbing through.
“Usually you get false alarms so you just brush it off, but this time it said there was a glass break,” he said.
You see two burglars going back and forth, bringing items to their dark-colored car.
“A bunch of Milwaukee,” Peterson said. “It was all power tools.”
It all cost over $1,000.
“You have the value of what they stole and that’s significant, but then you also have the value of putting the glass back in and the cleanup… and most the time it’s more than the actual product they stole,” Peterson said.
And then they hopped in a vehicle and sped off.
“Any car passing by could’ve been a cop and caught them in the act, so yeah, that probably was not the smartest idea,” he said.
Peterson told ABC7 he would not be surprised if the suspects came to the store earlier to canvas the area.
“It’s irritating because people work hard to provide and you have people that just come in and do what they did,” he said.
And now their front shelves are empty. But Peterson said he has a message for these masked suspects.
“We were able to catch the plate and the car and we have a good video,” Peterson said.
The store is offering a $500 reward for any information on who these two are.