As many slept on a snowy Sunday morning, a thief driving a minivan targeted the 825 Studios along a usually busy stretch of Westport Road.
“There are five cameras in the front of our building,” Jessica Christman, operations manager at 825 Studios said. “We got him from start to finish.”
After prowling, the man lifted a 50 to 60 pound cinderblock and chucked it through the storefront around 4:15 am. He then drove away to circle the block. Within minutes the video shows him ransacking the DJ booth.
“We knew that we were displaying high-end equipment on the front window, but we didn't want to take that for the community to walk by experience we get to experience every day with our artists,” Christman said.
The crook took off with only the DJ and mixing boards worth about $5,000, but priceless to the young children who were planning to take DJ lessons next month.
“Our doors are open to everybody he literally could've probably came in and said hey I need to use this board for something and we would've found a way for him to use it and instead he took advantage so it's pretty disappointing,” Christman said.
Earlier this year flooding damaged their basement that they’re still working to reopen.
In this case, management doesn’t think it was random.
“We've had several people come into our studio and identify the same person,” Christman said.
KCPD detectives are following up on leads to get the burglar off the streets.
“So he doesn't do this to another small business or a home, or wherever he finds his next victim,“ Christman said.
If you have any information about Sunday morning’s burglar call KCPD, or the KC Crimestoppers Hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
