That’s a frame from surveillance video that’s now in police’s hands, showing burglars that stole thousands of dollars in merchandise from West Seattle Runner (WSB sponsor), and doing costly damage in the meantime – note the boarded-up window:
A WSB reader and WSR customer tipped us on this; we contacted proprietors Tim and Lori McConnell, who tell the story here:
We were burglarized Friday morning around 3:30. Two men broke into our locked downstairs door by prying it open and defeating the lock. They then broke our exterior window to gain access to the store. They were in the store for about 8 minutes and took a duffel bag out with them. They returned about 45 minutes later; the first (burglar) took a small bag with him and the second one had our cash drawer, which contained no cash. He dropped it, climbing out the window, and it popped open. When he noticed no cash, he left it. He also got his bag stuck while climbing out, spilling the contents in the upper hallway. The second (burglar) also took a few pairs of shoes with him, mens size 12.5, Saucony, Nike Pegasus and Asics Kayanos. Both suspect were fairly tall, and we believe one of them had been in earlier during business hours with his girlfriend.
They stole all of our GPS watches and heart-rate monitors, including the non-working displays. They also stole all of our Tifosi sunglasses, and some random items including running headlamps and flashing clip-on lights. They did not get our register cash, as we keep that in another location, but they did break into our small lockbox where we keep extra one-dollar bills and change, taking all the ones (about $80). All told it was about $5,000 worth of items, not including the cost of the window and the new cash drawer.
We have video of both of them, which is how we know what time they broke in. They moved the camera that faces the entry door to Anytime Fitness, but I assume they were not aware about the other cameras that we got most of the video from. The video has been given to SPD Burglary Division. We also have witnesses that called 911, but SPD didn’t get there in time. We ask that anyone that is approached to buy any items from Polar, Garmin or Timex, or random Tifosi sunglasses without the case, contact SPD. Or if you see them for sale on Craigslist or EBay, please let us know. It’s just merchandise, and its not like having your personal items stolen (that happened to us last month in Vancouver), but it still feels like a violation. Especially when we watched the videos of them carrying away all of our merchandise that we make a living from. We do have insurance, but like all insurance, we have a deductible, so we will be out at least $1000 plus whatever items we don’t know were stolen.
We hate to see this and want to let all other small businesses know this happened. We really thought we were safe from this type of crime. Maybe not immune, but definitely not on crooks’ radar. Who would rob a running store? Well, apparently the two guys who did this would.
We want our friends, runners, customers and neighbors to know we still love West Seattle, we still live here and this will not deter us from continuing to operate in, and support all, of West Seattle.
Thanks, Tim and Lori
Again, contact police if you know anything about the burglary – or the stolen items. If and when we get clearer surveillance images and suspect descriptions, we’ll publish a followup.
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