Hundreds of Sneakers Stolen After Thieves Cut Hole In Mall Roof
Hundreds of Nike & New Balance Sneakers Stolen After Thieves Cut Hole In Mall Roof
Sneakerheads didn’t bat an eye when they heard about the $100 million robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, but seeing sneaker boxes carelessly thrown amid the rubble may tug at their heartstrings.
That’s precisely what happened last week at Treasure Coast Mall in Jensen Beach, Florida, when some thieves strategically cut a hole through the concrete roof of the building and found themselves inside a Champs Sporting Goods.
Their master plan worked, and they came away with between 400 and 500 pairs of Nike and New Balance sneakers after invading the store’s back room between midnight and 8 a.m Tuesday.
The Martin County Sheriff’s Office took to Facebook to explain how the thieves got away with the costly crime.
“Thieves cut their way through the concrete roof of the Treasure Coast Mall, dropping into the Champs Sporting Goods store and stealing hundreds of pairs of Nike shoes,” the statement reads. “The stolen merchandise was bagged, tagged, thrown off the roof, and loaded into a getaway vehicle. As you can see, some of the goods got hastily left behind.”
The attached pictures show a few dozen black New Balance boxes stacked up, with some other Nike and Air Max boxes tossed to the side as well as some stuffed into black garbage bags.
MCSO says its detectives are now on the case to “track them down” and asks the general public to call the station with any tips if they saw anything suspicious around the mall early last Tuesday morning.
There’s no word on what sneakers were stolen, but ABC News confirmed with MCSO that the goods are worth between $40,000 and $50,000, and the hole in the roof will cost another $10,000 to repair.
Sheriff John Budensiek spoke during a press conference on Wednesday, calling out the amount of planning that must’ve gone into such a movie-like scheme.
“We had a burglary that we discovered yesterday that appears to be right out of Mission: Impossible,” Budensiek said. “I watched the national news — saw what happened across the pond where they stole the crown jewels, and this is a one-off of that.”
He added, “These are organized criminals that are probably traveling criminals that made their way to Martin County, got off with a sizable amount of product. They didn’t do that with a handsaw. They used electric tools — probably a grinder or saw — and somehow worked for hours without being detected.”
