Local dry cleaners burglarized 6 times, no arrests

Dry cleaner hoping public can help catch crooks

JACKSONVILLE, Fla.Jessica Williams, with Deluxe Cleaners, explained the surveillance video that recorded two crooks tearing apart the dry cleaner's store that she manages.

"She comes in and goes right to register and pops it open, and she goes to the back while he tears apart the front," Williams said.

She showed Channel 4 the video where a man and woman first smashed through the front window of the shop with a hammer, then moments later, they disappeared. 

Williams said this isn't the first time they've been broken into. In fact, Williams said two of their stores have been hit a total of six times by crooks. The thieves have made off with cash, but on some occasions, they've also stolen customer's clothes.

"I think that a dry cleaners wouldn't be the biggest place to hit, but I don't know," said Williams. 

Williams showed Channel 4 separate videos from the different break-ins. One of them that happened in early July shows a man sliding into the store like Spiderman, after climbing through a crack in the top of the store's garage doors. 

"He's wearing somebody else's clothes with somebody else's shirt wrapped around his head," said Williams. 

The video shows the man spending almost eight minutes inside the dry cleaners, and treating the Laundromat like it's his own lounge. 

"You'll see him come right back out, and he climbs out like he's done it a million times," said Williams. 

Williams said the robberies are frustrating and disheartening because none of them have been caught.

"I've had it. I mean, not only do the customers know it, and we're having to tell customers things were taken during a break-in. We're losing the money and we're having to pay for things like repairs," said Williams.

Anyone with any information about the burglaries at Deluxe Cleaners is urged to contact Crime Stoppers at 866-845-TIPS.


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