Safe-Stealing Burglar Used Water Hose, Tape in Attempt to Retrieve Money

Despite an interesting attempt to get money out of a safe at a Dacula business, a would-be safecracker ended up empty handed.

Gwinnett County Police were dispatched to the Dacula Family Festival shopping center on Auburn Road in the early morning hours of June 19 after an off-duty Barrow County correctional officer drove by and spotted a male pushing a chair with a safe on top it across a parking lot.

By the time the correctional officer made a u-turn, the male was no longer in sight. The officer was, however, able to recover the safe.

Gwinnett Police officers checked the shopping center and discovered that both Monkey Joe’s and Little Caesars had been burglarized. While officers were checking the shopping center, another officer spotted a male matching the suspect’s description on Bailey Woods Road.

“The suspect took flight into the Harbins Plantation subdivision and [the officer] lost visual of the suspect,” the report stated.

Officers and a K-9 unit set up a perimeter and searched the area, but were unable to apprehend the male.

Surveillance footage from Little Caesars showed a tall, thin white male enter the business. At the time of the burglary, the male was wearing a dark shirt, khaki shorts, black shoes, white socks, gloves and a dark bandana covering his face.

The male entered Little Caesars by smashing the side window with a sledgehammer. According to the police report, the male tried to remove the safe from Little Caesars but was unable to do so because the safe was bolted to the floor.

At that point, the male grabbed a water hose and placed tape on the tip of it. He then placed the hose in the drop box portion of the safe in an attempt to get money out of the safe. When that failed to work, the male grabbed the sledgehammer and started hitting the door. The male also unsuccessfully attempted to use the sledgehammer to break the surveillance camera.

After failing to steal or break the Little Caesars’ safe, the male smashed a window at Monkey Joe’s.  The male was able to wheel the Monkey Joe’s safe -- which was later recovered by the Barrow County correctional officer -- out of the business on an office chair. The male also took a till drawer with an unknown amount of cash.

The case is listed as active.