Like a scene from a movie, a thief stopped by a store and robbed a jewelry counter. Police said the suspect entered the store by rappelling from the roof.
WOODLAND, WA — Just like in a movie scene, during an attempted jewelry robbery at a Walmart in Woodland on Christmas Day, the thief fell from the roof into the store, hit the jewelry counter, and stole the loot in his backpack. I packed.
Police said the suspect rappelled into the store from above through a skylight.
Woodland Police provided security video from the early hours of Christmas Day. The Walmart store was closed, but the suspect, whom police believe to be a man, decided to stop by anyway.
Pictures of the aftermath are evidence of an unsolved robbery, including one of the upper roof skylights the robbers breached.
“[They]breached the seal on one of the skylights and the security mesh and fled inside the building,” said a Woodland Police Sergeant. James Keller.
The suspect clipped a carabiner to the top of the HVAC unit and dropped the other end of the rope into the store. The rope was long enough to gather on the floor below. Once inside, the suspects beelined a jewelry case and loaded a backpack full of items worth about $5,100.
It’s like something out of a movie, but here in Woodlands, Washington.
In quiet downtown Woodland this week, Top Shelf Resale owner Trish Bernard told KGW that crime isn’t usually a problem in the town.
“And to flip Walmart jewelry out of a skylight…I mean, I don’t think any kind of jewelry is okay, but it’s extreme,” Barnard said.
According to the sergeant, it’s extreme, but it’s also an anomaly. Keller.
“This is probably one of the first things I’ve seen in the last 16 years where they’re actually pushing back against the facility. Probably 35-40 feet would be good.”
Despite the resourceful break-in, the would-be thief had one major problem: during the robbery, the alarm system finally tripped. The noise made him run, dropping his backpack full of stolen jewelry down the aisle before leaving the store.
Police officers also arrived at the Walmart on alarm, but the suspect was gone when they arrived. This case is an open investigation and anyone with information is urged to contact the Woodland Police Department.
