Burglar breaks into a pawn shop through the ceiling

It is like a scene out of a movie.

Surveillance cameras were capturing a break-in at a North Fort Myers pawn show Monday morning.

In the video, there is a blurry image dropping from the ceiling and running behind a glass case. Instead of going out the same way, thief busts through a window.

The next video shows the alarm going off as police rush to the scene.

“They have come in through the roof before as well as the side walls, they’ve driven vans into the building,” said Keith Powell, owner of The Gold Miner. “Pretty much if they’ve got a way to do it, we’ve seen it.”

Powell has seen his shop broken into over 12 times in the last 30 to 40 years. The pawn shop owner said he is thankful the thief did not get anything.

Lee County Sheriff’s Office is actively looking for a suspect, but the Powell said they did locate one small handprint on the glass near the jewelry case.

“They were hopping over the case, they planted their hand on the case and they found a pretty good print from that,” Powell said.

Todd Koskinas, who owns three pawn shops nearby, knows the stores are an easy target for thieves.

“You know those items are going to be there,” said Koskinas, owner of Cape Jewelry and Pawn. “They’re definitely there for the picking, so the question is with the most vulnerable spot for a store to be broken into— traditionally it’s windows and doors.”

But what about ceilings?

“There’s motion detectors and lasers that people put in their attic’s that way it wakes them up early,” Koskinas said, “gets the security system going and gets law enforcement on the way.”

For now, the owners of the pawn shop said they might reconsider their security system, hoping to catch the crooks in action next time. The damage alone from this heist will cost up to $5,000 to repair.