JERSEYVILLE - Two individuals broke into the new Jerseyville location of “The Cave” at approximately 2 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 27. Shattering the glass entrance door, they stole several pieces of merchandise and caused thousands of dollars in damages, according to store manager Nathan Badman.
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“Someone broke the door window, came in, broke a bunch of stuff, caused a bunch of damages, and got away with a few things that they thought were real weed, but were just CBD flower,” Badman said.
The store is located at 610 S. State St. at the intersections of highways 67 and 109, and had only been open for two weeks before the break-in occurred. Nobody was in the store at the time of the incident, but Badman said the damages were extensive.
“They took our register … the door cost about $400-500. I would say the damage done inside the store was close to $4,000-$5,000 worth of damage, probably just in repairs and stuff we’re going to have to go find and order again,” he said. “They broke four cases of glass … the receipt printer, the credit card reader and the monitor, those things were like $2,000. Each one of those cases was like $600. There was $200 in cash taken and we had a little tip jar with about 10 bucks in it that was also taken.”
After the burglary, the two suspects got in a vehicle and fled to Carrolton, where they were caught by the Carrollton Police Department later that same afternoon - even wearing the same clothes, according to Carrollton Police Chief Micheal McCartney.
“The two suspects, they’re from Carrollton,” McCartney said. “The only reason we got involved is because my officer, early in the morning, saw them in the alley - but there was only one suspect in the car at that point, so the guy took off, went outside of town and put his Jeep off in the ditch, so we ended up arresting him - at that point, we didn’t even know about the burglary.
“We recovered a bunch of new smoke pipes and all this stuff that would be in a vape shop, so he took it into Evidence, arrested the kid [and] the kid bonded. Later that day, a Jerseyville City officer called us and said, ‘Hey, we had a break-in last night, we’re going to send you some pictures and videos’ … as soon as we saw them, we knew it was the guy my officer just arrested that morning.”
At about 12:30 p.m. that afternoon, both Departments worked together to take both suspects into custody for the burglary, McCarthy said. While the suspects’ names were not readily available, he said one suspect was 17 years old and the other was 18. The 17-year-old has since been released on an ankle monitor, while the 18-year-old remains in custody at the Jersey County Sheriff’s Department.
A representative from the Jerseyville Police Department was unavailable for comment at this time. Stay tuned to Riverbender.com for updates as they occur.
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