Wave of burglaries hits local businesses causing thousands of dollars in damages

CLAY COUNTY, Fla. — A string of burglaries over the last few days in the greater Jacksonville may all be connected. These incidents have caused thousands of dollars in damages to at least six businesses.

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Surveillance videos show a group of young men using cars as battering rams to crash into stores like GameStop and smoke shops.

Khian Sykas, the manager of SoCal Smoke Shop in Orange Park, says they had thousands of dollars’ worth of items taken, on Monday, January 1st.

“Basically, around like five, six o’clock in the morning, there were some kids that drove a Kia right through the front door,” Sykas said. “And they ran in and grabbed a few items; they hit the register.”

Sykas said that the burglars took T-shirts and backpacks valued at about $4,000, but left damages totaling more than $40,000.

He expressed frustration, saying, “With more damage being done than what they took, I don’t understand it. It’s more of a hassle than anything else.”

Tuesday morning, there was another “crash and grab.” Surveillance footage from Smokey Bubble Smoke Shop in Orange Park shows thieves crashing a car into the building. One of the workers tells Action News Jax, they took CBD jars and managed to access the cash register.

This marked the second smoke shop in Clay County targeted within 24 hours.

These recent burglaries were happening around the same time as the incidents at GameStop stores in Jacksonville.

Over the weekend and on Monday, three stores were hit – the ones on Normandy Blvd, 103rd St, and on Applecross Rd. A GameStop worker tells Action News Jax that 103rd St was hit twice.

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The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office (JSO) incident reports reveal that the suspects used stolen vehicles—a Kia and Hyundai—to commit some of these crimes.

Budzburn, another smoke shop in Clay County, is a third smoke shop in Clay County that was broken into a couple of weeks ago. CEO, Abe Sharqawi, said he woke up the morning after Christmas to a call about his alarms going off. He discovered chaos at his storefront, and described it as “really, really horrible.”

“The detective came in yesterday and told me that he caught two young men 15 and 17 juveniles,” Sharqawi said. “It might be fun and games for now, but eventually someone is going to get hurt or you’re going to go to jail.”

Sharqawi said detectives told him that the two teens arrested may be connected to the GameStop burglaries.

Action News Jax has reached out to the Clay County Sheriff’s Office and JSO for confirmation, and is still waiting to hear back.

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