CRESTVIEW — Two Aultman Plaza shopping center units across Ferdon Boulevard South from the Southside Center school received damage around 5 a.m. Jan. 4 in an attempted robbery.
Burglars broke a window to enter the former Forever Kids shop, and apparently tried to smash their way through an adjoining wall into the adjacent Fast Payday Loans, according to Crestview police.
The break-in triggered a silent alarm, summoning police. Suspects reportedly escaped before officers arrived, leaving insulation and sheetrock from the vandalism scattered around the currently unoccupied unit.
Though the wall was breached, causing damage in the loan office's wainscoting behind a freestanding ATM, Crestview Police Department spokesman Cmdr. Andrew Schneider said nothing was taken.
Schneider said the incident is under investigation, but police believe the culprits were trying to circumvent alarms and cameras in the payday office, “which they wouldn’t have,” Schneider said.
“But a criminal’s mind can never be explained rationally,” he added.
Tuesday morning, repair crews replaced the broken window in the former toy store and patched a hole on the payday loan office side of the adjoining wall.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: No payday for Crestview burglars