An owner of a sign store in Ohio is livid about an attempted break-in last weekend at his business in Garfield Heights — so much so that he created a “WANTED” sign of his own and put it on the door the crook damaged, all in the hopes that he can “punk this guy out” and get him caught and arrested.
What are the details?
Surveillance video caught the moment a suspect walked toward Aaron Sign Shop on Turney Road early last Saturday morning and began kicking the glass door, WOIO-TV reported. The backward kicks didn’t result in a complete break, so he eventually gave up, the station said.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Unfortunately the crook damaged the door to the tune of $600, WOIO said.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Store owner Jim Grenig told the station his deductible makes it not worth using insurance, so he’s paying for the repair out of his own pocket.
However, Grenig is intent on getting his pound of flesh in the process.
He’s doing that with his very own “WANTED” sign — complete with screenshots of the culprit — and Grenig put the sign right on the door the crook kicked.
Image source: YouTube screenshot
“I’m angry,” he told WOIO. “I’ve been here 32 years. I do a lot for the community, and I was frustrated.”
Image source: YouTube screenshot
Grenig added, according to the station, that the crook “took my advertising that I had on the window off by kicking the door, so I really wanted to put this guy firsthand and let everybody see what he had done, hoping to embarrass him and maybe come forward and admit what he did. I had the means to kind of punk this guy out a little bit, and what better way to do it than to advertise on my own sign shop window? He took that away from me for what I was advertising, so I’m gonna give this guy his 15 minutes of fame in the limelight, hoping someone in our neighborhood recognizes him, comes forward, and we move on from this.”
The owner added to WOIO that the “WANTED” poster will stay up until the crook is caught: “From here on out, as long as it takes, until … you are captured, sir, I will leave it up, and I will post more daily.”
Store owner has guns, too
Grenig told WJW-TV he’s relieved he wasn’t in his store during the attempted break-in because he owns several guns and believes there would have been a violent confrontation: “I have to protect what’s mine and protect me, and when I’m in here, this is just like being at home.”
Anything else?
Weldon Hastings, who owns Weldon PC in the area, told WOIO he’s also upset about the uptick in crime against businesses: “To be hurt by the community you live in is a real shot across the bow.”
Grenig and Weldon are offering $500 for any information leading to the suspect’s arrest, the station said.
Garfield Heights store owner puts vandalism suspect on blastyoutu.be