EAST JORDAN — The East Jordan Police department in Charlevoix County said they have been investigating several break-ins, hitting some of the same establishments repeatedly.
Over the past month, Jordan Valley Glassworks has been broken into 3 times, and nearby businesses Ryan’s Auto Care and Gilroy’s Hardware have been hit twice.
Jay Bavers, the owner of Jordan Valley Glassworks said the repeated break-ins are unusual for this community.
“3 of them here, down the block here, 2 more businesses have been broken into more than once each. So, somebody is on the ball, in and out in 30 [seconds]. They came in here the first time, broke the door, got the cash register, left,” said Bavers.
Bavers said they replaced that register and that was stolen the next night. He said now they leave the register open to show there is no money in it, but they still were broken into a third time.
He said the suspect is seen on surveillance, wearing gloves, a mask, and a hood, and doesn’t steal any merchandise, making a beeline directly for the cash.
“Cameras have been checked to see who’s been in here. You know, casing the place because they obviously came in here and knew where the cash register was, grabbed it, ran right away,” said Bavers.
Bavers said the suspect gets away on foot.
“They’re leaving, going up through the woods and back here and, well, they have a car already through up there. I don’t know, but it’s just the one individual that we know of, and they’re in and out,” said Bavers.
He said being from a small town, everyone is talking about it.
“People are very upset here because it’s a nice, quiet little town. So many people have moved up here from bigger cities to get away from that,” said Bavers.
Bavers said they have now ponied up $1,000 for any information that leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
“It was not a matter of just punishing somebody. We want to know who it is. So, it’s stopped, and we can put an end to it,” said Bavers.
The break-ins have cost the business about $2,000 in damages and had almost $700 dollars stolen.
“It’s all between, like 7:00-8:00 at night and 2:00 or 1:00 in the morning. Just when everybody’s going home and relaxing and not paying attention to what’s happening here,” said Bavers.
Macie Sirmons works up the road from Jordan Valley Glassworks at a gas station. She said she’s heard about the break-ins.
“It’s just really weird. It’s a small town. Usually we have stuff happening, but not like this. I mean, especially it over and over again. I guess it’s like that second or third time, which usually doesn’t really happen, especially around here,” said Sirmons.
She said some of her co-workers are worried about the break-ins and hope it’s resolved soon.
“I hope they do catch whoever is doing or whatever because you know it. It just makes a lot of inconvenience for the stores and the people,” said Sirmons.