MINERSVILLE, Pa. — Main Street Sandwich Shop on Sunbury Street has called Minersville home for the past 35 years.
But around 3 a.m., a portion of the store was turned upside down.
“I got the phone call this morning from my son. He was driving through, and he'd seen the three guys when they came out,” said Kelly Kline, Main Street Sandwich Shop co-owner.
In a matter of seconds, three men stole about $3,000 from the skill game machines, leaving behind a broken door and destroying every machine in sight.
“When they did come in, they knew exactly what they were doing. They kicked them down. They were in and out of here in like a little over a minute,” Kline added.
The sandwich shop isn't the only business in Schuylkill County targeted by thieves.
Two weeks ago, a Mobil gas station in Cressona was robbed of nearly $20,000 from its skill game machines.
“The way that the video looks, it almost looks like they had a key for the machines to get into them. And they were sitting back as they were playing the skill machines,” said Trooper David Beohm, PSP public information officer.
Along with adding additional safety measures to her store, Kline is warning other businesses with skill game machines to be weary of unusual customers.
“The fact that they're breaking into these places and they're scouting these places out. I mean the video that we have, the way they came through the door, they had it set up, it was planned,” she said.
Trooper Beohm says police are investigating other recent accounts of theft with skill game machines to see if there may be a connection and asks the public to share any information about the crimes.
“When it's more than one police department, it's a matter of reaching out and saying, 'Hey, what did you guys have at your incident?' and maybe they're all the same, but that could take you know a while to figure out that it's the same suspects,” he said.
Pennsylvania State Police are currently looking for a newer model white sedan used by the group of men that fled the scene in Cressona.
If you see the men who match the surveillance footage using the vehicle, please contact PSP here.
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