Tulsa Police looking for 'smash and grab' burglary suspect

Smash and grab burglaries are nothing new in Tulsa, in fact, there have been a rash of them lately. But officers are on the trail of a suspect who may be responsible for at least 5 recent break-ins.

Wednesday, April 28th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

Smash and grab burglaries are nothing new in Tulsa, in fact, there have been a rash of them lately. But officers are on the trail of a suspect who may be responsible for at least 5 recent break-ins.

They're all local businesses, and the break-ins happen overnight. News on 6 reporter Heather Lewin explains.

Assistant manager Andrew Paskett: "I first got a call from the alarm company that the alarm had been triggered then I got a call back that it was an actual break-in." An auto parts store on south Peoria is the scene of the latest incident, which happened around 5 AM Tuesday.

"This is a piece of the rock the burglar used to smash out this window then police say the suspect climbed through or reached around and opened the door, then with the security alarm sounding quickly cleaned off the shelves."

Paskett says the burglar went for the high dollar items, tool kits and auto accessories. Managers are still tallying up the dollar amount of their loss. â€œI guess there's been some other locations that have had some problems so I wasn't too surprised to find out ours had been hit."

In fact, Tulsa Police are investigating four other burglaries, all within the past week, all between the hours of 3 and 6 AM, and all using the same method to get inside. Detectives say they've collected all the rocks used and will send them to the lab for any possible DNA evidence.

Anyone with information about these crimes can report it anonymously by calling Crimestoppers at 596-COPS