FLORIDA COMPUTER STOLEN http://jacksonville.com/news/crime/2010-12-20/story/bandits-make-1-million-jacksonville-heist

Bandits make off with $1 million in Jacksonville heist

Norwood Plaza Flea Market shops suffer massive losses in robbery by six thieves.

Posted: December 20, 2010 - 3:35pm

By Dan Scanlan

One security camera survived a Sunday raid at the Norwood Plaza Flea Market to record six men in black hoodies and masks cutting their way into one of four stores, then ransacking an ATM machine and safe.

What the other sabotaged cameras didn’t see was the rest of the break-in at the indoor flea market at 5301 Norwood Ave. that netted cash, handguns and an estimated $1 million in jewelry, according to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office police report.

The stores hit were Peter’s Gold, Men in Black, Hometown CD and Video and ATM Solutions. The burglars made their entry by cutting through concrete walls and metal locks, said flea market manager Claud Ross Sr.

“It is one of the worst things possible. We have been here six years,” Ross said. “I said wow. I have never seen anything like this. They were experts. They knew how to bypass alarms.”

Peter’s Gold suffered the biggest loss, getting ransacked and its safe cut into with an estimated $1 million in gold jewelry stolen. Owner Chi Yim said the burglars “destroyed everything” and doesn’t know what he will do now.

“They cut a big hole in the safe and took all my main jewelry,” Yim said. “They stole everything. … I was shocked. I lost all my business.”

Sometime before 2 a.m. the thieves cut a hole in a fence, then an outside wall, breaking a security camera and light there as well as pulling out a security system panel, the incident report said.

An inside motion sensor was painted over near another hole cut in an inside wall of the CD store, and more security cameras were damaged or turned around inside the flea market.

The video shows five or six masked men with gloves in the flea market and sparks flying as they cut their way into the padlocked door at the CD store, Ross said.

More sparks fly as they are seen cutting into the office floor safe after it was moved, then one of the ATM machines is sawn into.

Ross called police when he found the damage as he arrived later that morning. Along with the holes in the walls and the damaged security cameras, he found a computer and three .38-caliber guns were stolen from the flea market’s second-floor office.

The computer hard drive for the surveillance camera system was gone and a floor safe had been moved downstairs, cut open and an undetermined amount of cash stolen.

The owner of the CD store found nothing stolen, only a hole cut in her inside wall where the burglars got in.

The owner of the ATM store said there was $4,400 stolen from two cash machines there, while the Men in Black store owner said his store had been ransacked and about $300 in clothing stolen as well as $200 from the cash register.

dan.scanlan@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4549