WILKES-BARRE -- A business in downtown Wilkes-Barre was targeted by a burglar Tuesday morning. Now police are looking for the thief, who was caught on camera.
"This is where he came in right here and took a handful of phones," Chris Piccoletti said.
The burglary happened in under a minute. Surveillance video shows a man breaking into the shop, grabbing a few items in one corner, and running to the other side of the store. When he realized the boxes on that side were empty, he left.
"It hits close to home because this a small business. It's pretty painful. It hits the pocket pretty hard," Piccolotti said.
Piccolotti owns Center City Repair on South Main Street in downtown Wilkes-Barre. He says the burglar got about $2,500 worth of stuff, including some iPhone 6s and 7s that were being worked on. They were on the shelf right in the front corner of the store where the burglar shattered glass with a crowbar to get in.
"They're not really even sell-able at this point. He might not even know what to do with them," he explained.
Piccolotti opened his repair shop two years ago. He started his business two doors down at the Video Game Store on South Main Street. Still friends with the owners, he says that store has been burglarized twice in the last month.
"Right downtown is pretty bold, but I can't say we didn't expect this after the robberies they experienced next door, so I was as prepared as I could be for it," Piccolotti said.
After those break-ins, Piccolotti decided to get surveillance cameras. He installed them two weeks ago. Those cameras captured the image of the burglar.
Wilkes-Barre police are waiting for a copy of that surveillance video and a list of the exact items that were stolen. Piccolotti hopes police will be able to get information from the phones' serial numbers.
"We'll see if I can give them as much information as possible and hopefully they can catch the suspect and we'll get some justice here," he said.
