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It is located in the heart of downtown Belize City but that was no deterrent to the burglars who broke into the “A Fashion’ Boutique on Albert Street. It was hit sometime between closing time last night and opening time this morning. That’s less than 12 hours but as we found out today – it was more than enough time for the burglars who forced themselves in.

Keith Swift Reporting,
The thieves that hit “A Fashion” were small enough to crawl through this small hole – meaning that they had to penetrate a cement wall of the store’s changing room. But to get to the wall of the changing room, the thieves had to be strong enough to rip off this wooden door and then this grill door. Employees knew something was wrong the moment they walked in this morning.

Lavern Flores, Employee
“This morning my boss came in, we opened the shutters and everything, and when he came in he saw his cash drawer opened up and when he came he saw the side gate opened up but he didn’t pay it no mind. So when he opened the shutters and he saw the cash draw opened, he asked the boy to go and see what happened. The boy went through the gate and when he got through the gate, he saw that the back door was busted open and my boss came around and he saw here was broken open also too.”

Keith Swift,
Explain to me what exactly they did.

Lavern Flores,
“They broke it open with a hammer. They broke it open with the hammer and we found the hammer in the cement this morning. The door was nailed and they wrenched the door open and they came in, broke the cement wall open and they got in.”

And once in – they stole more than four thousand dollars worth of merchandise and cash.

Lavern Flores,
“We missing t-shirts were gone, boxers, socks, and also his money was stolen. It was $3,000 in cash and in clothing it was $400. And they also took my boss’ bag that he takes to Panama and when they took that bag he also had his passports and his other documents in there but they left the passport on the step and the other documents and they took the bag.”

“A Fashion” has been opened for five years and this is the store’s first burglary.

Lavern Flores,
“It left me shocked this morning. When I saw it I didn’t know what to do. I say people cruel da Belize because shucks, they actually broke the cement to get into the store and they thief all the cash and also they stole clothing. It left the boss shocked because they stole all his money.”

The store has already patched the hole in the wall of the changing room – and the door the thieves ripped off last night has been replaced with a cement wall.

There are surveillance cameras in the store but they were directed to the warehouse. Police are investigating but no arrests have been made.