The rash of burglaries in southwest Bethesda early Friday morning was more extensive than has been confirmed publicly by Montgomery County police. In addition to the confirmed forced entry at the Montgomery County government liquor store at the Westwood Shopping Center, Bethesda Market at the Shops at Sumner Place and the Exxon station on MacArthur Boulevard near the D.C. line, at least two other businesses were broken into at the Westwood Shopping Center.
Windows are boarded up at Westbard Hair Studio at 5430 Westbard and the newly-opened Shouk at 5436 Westbard, both in the Westwood Shopping Center. I have heard an unconfirmed report that the nail salon next to Shouk was also hit, but windows were intact there Saturday evening, so there is no evidence of burglary as of this writing. It's interesting that they chose a hair salon and restaurant, when the Voorthuis store right there would presumably have expensive frames that could be bagged up quickly for a much bigger score.
The number of businesses broken into suggests that whoever carried these crimes out was confident in a slow police response to burglar alarms. It would take a substantial amount of time to enter at least three businesses and steal property. The burglar(s) were then comfortable in moving on to other commercial areas nearby. All of which again underlines the lack of police resources in Bethesda, as was also proven by firefighters repeatedly asking the police department for assistance with traffic control at a fire scene on Westbard last fall, and waiting over 20 minutes for police to respond to the request.
11 comments:
Thank you for the information, but. . . was it really necessary to highlight another target?
Those businesses don't make much sense to burgle. Have they confirmed they were or is that the assumption based on the need for window replacements?
10:38: Assuming you're not trolling, I'm not sure what you're referring to. Is it significant to motive that criminals would target less-obvious businesses in a smash-and-grab situation? Absolutely. So, as 10:55 noted, at least 2 of these were odd choices to burgle. More accessible merchandise was visible and yards away.
10:55: The liquor store break-in - which either didn't involve window breaking or was quickly repaired - is classified as a burglary in the crime data log, as were Bethesda Market and Exxon. The hair salon and Shouk are not yet acknowledged in crime data. Personally, I want more details to have an accurate accounting of what this was about.
"Personally, I want more details to have an accurate accounting of what this was about"
Ditto. Not sure why you're saying they were burglaries if neither of us know what happened, though.
5:54: I'm saying burglaries only because that is what the initial police dispatch was for, and because they appeared to be targeting liquor stores in two separate locations.
But there are certainly some aspects of this that don't quite add up logically, even using the criminal mindset.
As a business owner in the Westbard center. Arrived at my store at 9:00am. Friday morning. Glass all over the sidewalk in front of the Hair salon, Shouk, the Nail Salon and the Liquor store. The liquor store had their door glass repaired early since it is county owned. As a business owner there, I was informed that the break in's seemed to involve person or persons looking for cash. Nothing else seemed to be taken. So yes, Liquor store, door glass shattered, Nail Salon, Door Glass shattered, Skouk, Large window shattered, Hair Salon, Door glass shattered.
8:28: Thanks! Very helpful information.
This is horrific
Really people - we need a Rudy guliana type who is committed to cleaning up crime
Based on what 8:28 said, I would guess this whole mess is the result of a low-intelligence level criminal just casting about for a quick payoff and not really giving much thought to how to go about it in the most efficient manner. Disgusting. MoCo needs to get away from the "defund" mindset and more to the "tough on crime" mindset before more folks plan to leave to go to another state as I will be doing soon.
10:38 again-- Not trolling, but you basically said, If you're going to be committing a crime there, there's another store right nearby that you could/should have tried.
5:30: They knew it was there - they had to pass it to get to the other businesses they broke into.
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