Burglar Easily Steals Empty Cash Register

A burglar made off with a cash register Friday night from the Edge Apparel store in , but he must have been dismayed when he managed to pry it open later.

There was no money in it.

An alarm sounded from the store at 11:58 p.m., and the business owner received a call moments later from her alarm company. But she advised the caller not to notify because she had been having “issues” with the alarm and doubted it was really a break-in.

She did go to the store herself, though, and found the rear door unlocked and saw that there was a light on in the rear office. Then she noticed a cash register was missing, and she finally called police.

Officers observed that another cash register, a large flat-screen TV mounted on the wall behind the counter and an unsecured laptop computer had all been left undisturbed, and the owner assured them that nothing else but the one register was missing.

She told them that it was seldom used and had no cash in it. She did not say for the record whether there was money in the other, unstolen register.

Officers then looked for signs of a forced entry, and finding none, they discovered that the back door latch was malfunctioning and had never been locked at all, allowing the burglar to just turn the handle and walk in.

The store manager arrived to review video, and police said that they clearly saw a man enter at 11:58, carrying a pry bar, and go to the front counter and come back with the register in hand.

Neither the owner nor the manager recognized the man as being either a former employee or regular customer, leaving police without any known suspects.