FLORIDA COMPUTERS STOLEN FROM BUSINESSSun Herald - 12/11/04Burglary adds to shop's woes

S&S Money has weathered it all


One look at the S&S Money Texaco station in Punta Gorda after Hurricane Charley demolished it last summer would be enough to conclude "this is as bad as it gets."

But since then, the difficulties faced by station owner Zaheer Sattar have only gotten worse.

First, the city of Punta Gorda forbid Sattar to rebuild the same business on the site. So, Sattar moved it to a temporary location in Charlotte Harbor.

Then bad luck struck again.

Early Friday, thieves broke into the new location and ripped off some $30,000 worth of automotive computers, machines and tools. They also stole the keys to all the customers' vehicles, said Sattar in an interview Friday.

"Without these things, you cannot repair cars," Sattar said. "I'm trying to start back up again and this happened."

The burglars apparently gained entry through a part of the shop where construction was ongoing to repair hurricane damage.

"It was wide open," said Bob Carpenter, spokesman for the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office. "They just kind of helped themselves."

Detectives lifted fingerprints from a number of locations. They also obtained a tape from a security camera at a nearby business that showed "movement" at 3:05 a.m. Friday, according to a sheriff's report.

Originally from Guyana, Sattar has owned the business since October 1985. It was located next to the Holiday Inn and the Charlevoi condominiums near the northbound U.S. 41 bridge, until the Aug. 13 hurricane.

After Charley, the only thing left was a customer's car up on a lift and a pile of rubble. Images of that site were beamed into viewers' homes around the country on evening news broadcasts.

The hurricane also downed trees that crushed three of Sattar's cars and wrecked his home in Deep Creek. Sattar is staying with a brother until contractors rebuild the home.

"Even my house is trashed," he said. "I can't stay there."

The city refused to permit Sattar to rebuild the station on the Punta Gorda site, which was in a commercial-general zone. Although "automotive service stations" are permitted in that zone, the city concluded S&S was a "nonconforming use" because major auto repairs were being performed at the business, said David Hilston, chief city planner.

The city has interpreted the zoning code to allow only minor automotive repairs in such a zone. Major repairs are permitted only with special exceptions, according to Hilston.

The city allows nonconforming land uses to continue -- unless the structures get 75 percent damaged in disasters or the business closes for at least 90 days.

After the storm, Sattar scrambled to find another location. The search was difficult because many businesses in the area were destroyed.

S&S holds a contract to maintain the U.S. Postal Service's fleet, and Sattar said he didn't want to let such a customer down.

"I had to set up again," he said.

Within just two weeks, he located a temporary shop in the back of a building shared by Midas Muffler and Charlotte Harbor Exhaust. The S&S shop is now located at 4135 Tamiami Trail.

Sattar arrived to work Friday to find the place ransacked.

One Cadillac had its wheels stolen. Several cars had side windows busted out. A few had ignition switches "punched," and one pickup truck had its headlights mashed. Cops theorize the headlights were busted out after an alarm went off.

About $18,000 worth of computers and monitors were stolen. Sattar had just recently purchased one of them for $10,000 just a few weeks ago.

That computer, distributed by Snap-on Tools, was used to diagnose vehicles with internal computers.

"It tells you how to go about testing and repairing the vehicles and how long it should take," Sattar said.

Also stolen was a fuel injection tester, a half-dozen batteries, two floor jacks and a transmission jack.

"It's got to be someone knowledgeable about mechanics," Sattar said.

Sattar is working to relocate the business to a permanent site located on Harborview Road. He applied to get that site approved as a planned development, but that process could take four to six months, according to Charlotte County Planner Jorge Perez.

Sattar suggested the county expedite the approval process for businesses that were displaced by the hurricane.

Perez said county staff must certify that the proposal has met all county requirements before scheduling it for a planning and zoning board hearing.


Stolen items

According to the Charlotte County Sheriff's report, burglars Thursday night stole the following items from S&S Money/Texaco in Charlotte Harbor:

* auto repair computer -- $10,000

* two computers -- $8,000

* a personal computer -- $1,500

* tire machine -- $6,000

* hand tools -- $4,500

* brake machine -- $1,000

* fuel injection test machine -- $375

* air-conditioning tools -- $360

* timing light and ohm meter -- $356

* 15 keys to customers' cars

* 6 car batteries

* four cases of oil

You can e-mail Greg Martin at gmartin@sun-herald.com.


By GREG MARTIN

Staff Writer