Crime & Safety

Penzeys Spices Suffers Burglary, Theft of Truck

Be on the lookout for a large box truck trailing an intoxicating and enchanting aroma of diesel fumes mixed with Moroccan oregano and Spanish thyme.

A local company with an international reach fell victim to a very parochial crime Monday when someone broke into its headquarters and stole a multitude of tools and appliances, a selection of exotic spices, and a truck to haul it all away in.

Police may be looking for suspects with a sharp, pungent or floral scent.

At 8:38 a.m. Monday, police were called to Penzeys Spices, 12001 W. Capitol Dr., on a report of a burglary and vehicle theft.

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The facilities manager of the business told officers that an employee of Penzey’s had called him at 8 a.m. to report that someone had broken in over the weekend.

When he arrived at work, that man had found a picnic table moved next to the building and a window above it broken. Inside, he found another broken window in a garage door broken and noticed some things missing.

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Then, reports of missing property began to come in from all departments.

Missing were a large number of tools from the Tool Room; a scale from Quality Control; more tools from Information Technology; three fans from Picking and Boxing; another fan from Store Picking; and six wooden boxes containing assorted spices from the Retail Store.

Also missing was a set of truck keys from IT, which proved to have been used to steal a white 1999 Izuzu box truck from the company.

A video surveillance camera showed the truck leaving the property at 2:10 a.m.

Penzey's is surrounded by only a partial fence and has only the one surveillance camera at its main gate. No one was seen entering earlier, and police surmised that the burglars entered through a gap in the fence elsewhere.


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