Police: Thieves steal millions of dollars in merchandise in Lakewood warehouse heist
Police say thieves first cut a hole in the roof, used a ladder to enter, then placed cellphone signal jammers around the building.
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It reads like a Hollywood thriller script: Thieves case out a joint, know the perfect opportunity when to strike and then cut a hole in the roof and make off with millions of dollars of merchandise.
But this scenario actually happened, and Lakewood police are trying to track down the skilled bandits who targeted an electronics warehouse.
A heartbreaking realization is setting in for the stunned CEO of CloseoutNJ, a warehouse once filled with expensive electronics that is now left ransacked and stripped of the most valuable merchandise.
“We might have to shut down, you know? That’s where we are at because of this,” said Yaakov Jacobs. “We are looking probably about $4 million of our costs in that neighborhood.”
Police say thieves first cut a hole in the roof, used a ladder to enter, then placed cellphone signal jammers around the building and in the lobby and had their eyes set on Apple products.
“Mostly Apple, Apple watches, iPads, MacBooks, displays, Mac Minis, laptops,” said Jacobs.
Security systems were smashed, wires were cut and monitors and hard drives were destroyed - all during a time when the CEO and his employees were observing the Sabbath.
“Orders on hold, we have accounts payables that we have to come up with that we had orders that would pay that and that’s gone.”
Jacobs says the thieves spent upwards of six hours inside the warehouse looking for anything of value, cutting holes in unmarked boxes looking for the most expensive items to load up.
“They smashed all the computers and came with a bunch of cargo vans and kept loading it up, leaving, coming back and they ended up stealing our cargo van as well.”
Jacobs says police found the van abandoned in Newark, and the 10 or so thieves knew exactly what they were doing.
“It does seem like they might have been involved in a burglary with us a different time. The cops say it might be the same crew. They were caught last time and they were let out," he says.
For Jacobs, his real-life horror story may mirror a penned script.
“Except in the movies, they solve it in 70 minutes,” he said.
