The Tint Shop, an auto accessories store, sits on busy 147th in Midlothian. At 10:30 Tuesday night, a minivan backs up to the front door. Burglars get out, use bolt cutters to remove a lock, but an alarm scares them off.
But a half hour later, back they come, like they know the place. Hopping the counter, let's see what's here. There's lots of stuff. Just below three surveillance cameras that record multi-angles of the four-minute grab and go.
George Leiva and his co-workers have watched the video over and over as the thieves stack up radios, cars alarms, stereo speakers. It's like a big Christmas haul. They don't have enough hands to carry it all. Nobody outside notices two guys loading the mini-van with over 50 boxes of audio gear, roughly $20,000 worth of stuff.
"They definitely don't seem concerned about anybody showing up of calling police. You're right, 147th is busy all the time," said Leiva.
It may be that The Tint Shop wasn't the only stop for the burglars.
Just down the block a few hours later, burglars broke into a Cash For Gold store, took some jewelry, and tried to pound their way through a wall into a liquor store, but apparently gave up when they hit brick.
Back at The Tint Shop, the burglars returned for a 2:30 a.m. encore. How 'bout that subwoofer, load it up. And that wall display.
"You wanna not put your personal emotion into it and it's just merchandise. I'm glad we weren't here, but at the end of the day that's money lost that we worked for," said Leiva.
The thieves did leave some fingerprints on the glass counter top, which they broke. It takes months, however, for the state police to turn around prints on property crimes.
The backlog is huge, but police departments can ask for a faster run which Midlothian police say they will do. They suspect this week's burglaries may be part of a recent ring in Midlothian and surrounding towns.
The Tint Shop owners are offering a reward and hoping that someone can identify the faces on tape.
