Oct 13, 2008 6:24 pm US/Eastern
Store Owner Offers Reward To Catch Thieves
CORAL SPRINGS (CBS4) ―
The owner of a South Florida audio store is putting up his own cold hard cash to help catch a couple of thieves.
Mike Balkis, who owns Sound Blazers at 11354 Wiles Road in Coral Springs, told CBS4 several people broke into his store around 11 p.m. on evening and stole thousands of dollars of electronic equipment. The entire burglary was captured by surveillance cameras inside the store; giving police a good look at those responsible. Balkis said the thieves used a crowbar to jimmy the lock on the front door; the entire burglary took less than five minutes. In all, Balkis said they made off with $15 thousand in GPS navigation units, radios and Bluetooth devices.
"Now you can see the empty display case. Those guys targeted expensive items like this one right here, said Balkis pointing to an empty case, "A fully loaded DVD navigation system."
This is the third time in sixth months that the store has been robbed.
"We put a lot of hard earned money into putting this store together, we work hard to keep everything like this and when they do this to us, its like a 'start over' for us, it's tough" said Balkis.
Balkis said he's put up a reward of $2 thousand for anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the men who robbed his store.
"The worst part about this, like I said, is that they're getting away with it and we're trying to get to the bottom of this," said Balkis "That's why we decided to go public."
Anyone with information on the burglary is asked to call Broward Crimestoppers at (954) 493-TIPS.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
The top videos on CBS4.com
