Thieves cut their own opening into Marysville businesses through drywall



MARYSVILLE, Wash. – Marysville police are looking for a pair of crooks that they said created their own opening into a liquor store and yoga studio early Friday morning, bypassing security systems by tunneling through drywall.

What they did is nothing high tech or new said police, but it can be effective.

“This is something that comes from a movie,” said Edward Chea, when he first saw the damage to his Marysville liquor store.

“Everything was in an array. Everything was thrown everywhere and there was a hole in the wall,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘Why is there a hole in the wall?’”

The small hole said police was the crooks point of entry, and they did it not once, but twice into two different Allen Creek stores with the same successful result. They came and went without sounding any alarms.

However, an old surveillance system the pair missed, did catch them on camera, giving police clues to who they may be.

“Here you see them going out that door, they take the bar off,” said Chea, describing the surveillance footage.

With the alarms disabled, the pair of thieves came and went as they like, even bringing tools into the business to break into the company’s safe.

Chea said they tried for 45 minutes unsuccessfully they moved on to the cash register and stole 30 cartons of cigarettes. Chea said the cost of damage to his business is much more than what the thieves were able to get away with.

“I am still in shock that this is something they are even capable of doing,” he said.

Drywall burglaries are nothing new said law enforcement, but they have fallen out of trend. Nearly 10 years ago, a group of thieves known as the “drywall bandits” targets dozens of businesses in Snohomish County using the same technique.

“You have security on the front and the normal accesses of your business, not through the walls,” said detective Bill Koonce with Lynnwood Police. “We’ve seen people go through just about everything including masonry if they have a good enough reason to get through the other side they can get through.”

Marysville Police said they have not heard of recent drywall cases to indicate that the crime is coming back. They are investigating.

“They knew what they were doing,” said Chea. He said he is nervous and will be until they are caught.

“I am worried about my customers’ safety as well as my own and my families.”