Video surveillance at stores burglarized on South Main Street in the early hours of Tuesday show five people breaking into the stores and grabbing everything from cash registers and cigars, to men’s cologne and men’s socks.
Bowling Green Police Division received the first alarm call at TJ Maxx, at 4:57 a.m. It was discovered that a neighboring store, Maurice’s, had also been broken into. That was followed by break-ins reported at Mike’s Party Mart at 6:09 a.m., and at South Side 6 at 6:21 a.m.
In all the stores, either front windows or doors were broken out by chunks of concrete.
At TJ Maxx, the suspects were all wearing head and face coverings, as well as gloves. The video shows they were in and out of the store in less than 1.5 minutes.
In addition to taking two cash registers, the suspects also took several pairs of men’s socks and men’s cologne. Also missing were HP hard drives, HP keyboards, HP monitor money drawers and Epson printers.
Parts of the stolen cash registers were outside, and the manager told police that no money is stored overnight in the registers.
Another police officer found a window broken out at the nearby Maurice’s store. In that store, it appeared the cash register had been disturbed, but nothing else.
Two BGSU Police Department officers arrived on the scene to help.
The next break-in was reported at Mike’s Party Mart, with the glass door reportedly being broken into.
The store owner was contacted, and told police the cash register drawer was missing. The suspects had moved the change box containing $600 from behind the counter to a table in the store, but left the money in the box. The ATM in the store was tampered with, but it did not appear to have been entered.
The owner reported that the store was missing about $300 of cigars, $400 in vapes, and $300 in cigarettes.
Across the street, South Side 6, also reported a break-in, with the glass front door broken. It appeared that the cigar selection had been gone through, and a cooler was open. Officers found an empty Gatarade bottle outside the store, and collected that in evidence.
Video showed the five suspects were in and out of that store in about 60 seconds.
The burglaries remain under investigation.
