Mike Radice, owner of Greenwood Hardware at 7201 Greenwood Ave. N., says someone broke through a high back window to get into the store early this morning, then stole an ax to break out through the front glass door. Nothing else was stolen.
Radice says the burglar used spray glue and gaffer’s tape to break in a small window through the breezeway behind the store, where garbage cans are stored.
The burglar was not wearing a mask, but he is seen only from the back on surveillance tape. He was wearing a baseball cap sideways. Radice said he appeared to be in his late teens, and was small. Two large jagged pieces of glass were sticking out the front door where the burglar escaped, but Radice said he didn’t see any blood.
“I don’t think he knew what a hardware store is, or thought there was money in the till,” Radice says of why nothing was stolen besides the ax. “He didn’t touch the power tools. What are you going to steal? A toilet kit from plumbing? A can of paint? Nothing that you would be able to pawn easily.”
Radice says the tills are left completely empty and open every night.
Radice said the alarm went off and four or five squad cars arrived, including a K-9 unit, but the burglar got away with the $50 ax.
“Whoever it was, was prepared,” Radice said. “No one walks around with gaffing tape and spray on glue.”
