Ashley Hunter - Greene Publishing, Inc.
$300 was stolen, and $600 is left in damages after a break in at Advance Auto Parts, located on 497 E. Base St., in Madison, on Monday, Oct. 24.
According to the report written by the break in's investigating officer, Detective James Fletcher, Advance Auto Part's manager, Reggie Dennis, had arrived at the store on Monday morning to open the store, when he found three cash register boxes littering the floor of the shop.
After an investigation of the cash register boxes, it was determined that each one had been pried open.
However, throughout the premises, there was no evidence of a forced entry point into the store. Fletcher deduced that one of the store's three doors had been left unlocked the previous night when one of the employee's was closing up for the night.
Contact was made with the alarm company, Tyco, to determine when the alarm system was last activated. It was determined that an alarm had not gone off since the night before, on Sunday, Oct. 23 when one of the employees set off the alarm at 7:30 p.m. Further investigation into the alarm system showed that when the manager, Dennis had entered the shop and used his code to deactivate the alarm, the code had not been recorded. After a quick inspection outside, Fletcher discovered a torn out electric box, and the exposed alarm wires had been cut.
For all the work that had been done in oder to break into the building, the only thing reported as missing was $300 from the cash register. The damage to the cash register boxes and alarm system, however, equated up to $600.
Fletcher attempted to dust for finger prints on the scene of entry as well as on the cash register boxes, but neither surface was not compatible for lifting clear prints at the time.
The cash register boxes were taken as evidence and will be sent off to be put under further analysis in order to pull prints off of them.
Individuals with any information pertaining to the crime are encouraged to call the Madison Police Department at (850) 973-5077.