Robbers breaks into store — realizes the owner had already outsmarted them with a genius move

Shoplifting remains a significant concern, with incidents of theft rising steadily over the past few years. As per a recent study by the National Retail Federation (NRF), retail businesses across the country had a 90% surge in monetary losses over the past four years. But one businessman found a clever way to outsmart the robbers who tried to barge into his store at around 3 a.m. earlier this week. The California-based shoe store owner, Roman Gonzalez, was one step ahead and left the thieves with his smart hack, reported NBC affiliate CBS47 KSEE24.

The CCTV footage from the incident, accessed by the outlet, showed masked men ramming their sedan through the front of the store. But as soon as they got inside, they were shocked to see that the sneaker collection store, named DripOnDrip, was mostly empty. Their intention to steal the goods and cause a financial loss to the local business owner in Fresno was foiled. In fact, one of the two individuals threw their arms up in disappointment. Yet, they reportedly stole some pairs of shoes and apparel left there for charitable purposes.

“If they would have looked through the window, they would have saved themselves some time and energy from even trying to break in because they would have noticed that there's nothing here on the floor for them to take easily at all,” Gonzalez told the outlet. Interestingly, prior to this, there was another robbery that took place at the store located in the River Park Shopping Center area, almost a year ago. Due to that, the business owner learned a thing or two about security as he started clearing the floor every night and left the register open to show there was nothing inside. Additionally, the only thing he left out at night was a wall of right-foot shoes.

Emphasizing these goods had very little value, Gonzalez added, “Once you take this shoe, I mean, you can't just buy a left-foot shoe online either, so you're not going to be able to use that.” According to the business owner, the only thing of real value the thieves stole were some pairs of shoes for the needy. “They did take some donation shoes that I give away to the community here for the teenagers that come in,” he told the NBC affiliate network. Furthermore, Gonzalez wanted to ensure that the teens in Fresno had some new kicks. The business owner’s noble cause was cut short by thieves who stole those pairs during yet another break-in within a year.

Amidst his solid security plan in place, he hoped that the local authorities in California would be able to take the matter to its logical conclusion. “Let's hope they (the thieves) get caught, and we learn from this situation,” remarked the store owner. Meanwhile, River Park security launched an investigation into the case. They reportedly arrived at the location as soon as the alarm went off and boarded up the wall before Gonzalez arrived later that day at six in the morning. The outdoor shopping center also held a discussion among its stakeholders to heighten security in the area overnight.