JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A Southside Jacksonville business hopes to catch the people responsible for burglarizing their shop after it was hit for the third time in less than two years.
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Ahmad Zafar is one of the owners of Smoke Galaxy, a smoke shop.
Early Saturday morning shop surveillance cameras caught three people with partially covered faces breaking in.
Less than two minutes later they are seen exiting with bags full of products.
Zafar said they took things like vapes, cigarettes, and tools to smoke with like pipes.
According to the incident report, approximately $15,500
“It’s a headache every time there’s a break-in,” Zafar said. “It cost me like a thousand dollars to change the glass and I spend like $4,000 on this rolling gate.”
After the second burglary, he put a rolling gate in his front windows.
After this third hit, he placed bars at the top of his front windows.
“I want them to see this and say ‘There’s no way we can get in there,’” Zafar said.
When looking at the surveillance video, you get a partial glimpse of two of the people who broke in.
Zafar said they looked too young to be doing this, so he wants anyone who might know them, to tell them to stop.
“I really want them to go study, go to college, go to university, and make a future. Instead of doing this, all that stuff,” Zafar said. “I want for the parents to watch their kids.”
He added that burglarizing businesses could have an outcome none of them like.
Zafar said these three break-ins do make him second guess the thought of opening other businesses in case the same thing happens to the other shop.