Suspected Phone Store Burglar Found Hiding In Ceiling
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) - A couple of bold bandits who planned to burglarize a mobile phone store located right next to the Pinecrest police station ended up in cuffs Wednesday morning.
Overnight a security company monitoring a live video feed of the T Mobile store at 12537 S Dixie Highway noticed someone inside the closed business and called the police.
"Police officers were here within two minutes," said Pinecrest Police spokeswoman Michelle Hammontree.
Arriving officers noticed a suspicious van driving nearby.
"He was driving down U.S. 1 without lights and without a tag. So one of our alert patrol officers was able to apprehend him and arrest him," said Hammontree.
The man behind the wheel turned out to the getaway driver who ditched his partner, according to Pinecrest police.
Officers at the store noticed a hole cut into the wall inside the business next door, which is under construction. The burglar had broken the locks to get inside that business, according to the general contractor working on the project.
The burglar also cut a hole into the inventory room of the T-Mobile store to gain access to the phones.
As police searched the business under construction they found burglary tools, including power tools and a bag containing approximately 70 cell phones worth an estimated $28,000 according to police.
A Miami-Dade police K9 was brought in to assist in the search but found nothing. Police thought they had lost the burglar. But after the arrest of the getaway driver one officer went back.
"A tenacious officer came to the building and found him in the drop ceiling behind the air duct," said Hammontree.
He was taken into custody. T-Mobile got their phones back but both store are stuck with the thousands of dollars in damages the burglars left behind.
Police have arrested 26 year old Raiko Guerra Ramos and 27 year old Maidel Aguirre Menendez and charged them with burglary and vandalism to a business.
