St. Augustine Police Department Community Affairs Officer Barbara Clifford reported the following recent investigation to Historic City News.
Police responded to “2nd Time Around” in the 1690 block of South Ponce de Leon Boulevard regarding a burglary to their place of business.
Upon arrival Corporal Tim Bryan made contact with the manager who advised that the store was closed at 5:00pm on Monday, December 7th. Her Husband, who also works at the store, went back at 9:00pm to pick up the deposits.
According to the police report, when he arrived he saw the glass in the back door had been cracked, but not broken out. He also noticed that the light above the door had been broken and was no longer on.
On inspection, he did not notice anything out of place at the store and he secured the broken door with a piece of wood as he left.
The next morning, when another employee came to open the store, they discovered that the cash register had been broken and was on the floor. The employee contacted the manager who arrived and report that $82 had been taken from the register, $10 of change had been taken from the donation bucket and a white envelope, containing $183 cash, was missing. The total amount of money stolen was $275.
During Corporal Bryan’s investigation, he found that the possible entry point was from another business storage utility room which is left unlocked.
Bryan discovered a shopping cart pushed up against the inner wall of the utility room and missing ceiling tiles which would allow someone to crawl through into “2nd Time Around” — gaining entry into the store.
Evidence was taken from the scene and the investigation is on going.