Money, alcohol, and safe, stolen; Police believe the thief has done it before
KENNESAW, Ga. - Two businesses broken into in a matter of minutes with thousands of dollars stolen and police believe the thief may be connected to other crimes.
Before dawn Thursday, someone smashed their way into Luciano's and Bar North off Jiles Road in Kennesaw.
The owner of Bar North has video of a masked man, wearing gloves, smashing his way through a large window.
"He went to the window, cut it, smashed it, cut the second pane, smashed it, crawled in crawled all the way over to the bar," said Paul Michaud, owner of Bar North.
The video shows a man ducking low and scurrying behind the bar. While inside, the owner says the thief stole money from the register, the Keno machine and a few bottles of alcohol.
"It's very frustrating, but there's no alarm that a professional can't beat," said Michaud.
Kennesaw Police say the same guy then went to Luciano's just a few doors down and did the same thing.
Owner of Luciano's, Christian Valvo, says the thief was only inside a few minutes but took off with thousands of dollars.
"The computers were hanging off the ground the cash register was gone," said Valvo.
The thief also hauled off a 150-pound safe that was under a deck in a back office.
"I saw the track where they drug it out of the office through the building," said Valvo.
Police are now looking for a silver Charger they believe the guy was driving. Investigators say it is likely he is connected to other crimes. They say the thief was quick, knew where to go and what to do to try to prevent being caught on camera.
"In the pizzeria they took a disc out of the surveillance system and in the bar they manipulated the cameras, so we have very limited footage of the suspect," said Kennesaw Police Capt. Rick Shumpert.
The owners of the businesses are just hoping he is caught before he strikes again.
"It's a tough time right now with food prices and inflation, to get robbed it's a severe kick in the gut. But we'll bounce back," said Valvo.