String of burglaries plaguing Clermont businesses

The manager of a Clermont business says the place has been hit by thieves twice in a matter of weeks.
 
Wine Regions shared surveillance video with Fox 35 showing masked men burst into the store.

Manager Denise Schlautman says the first break in went down on April 8.

“They took a car jack and threw it through the window and smashed it,” she said.

She says that time, the thieves got away with high-end merchandise and money.

Then May 6 rolled around and the police were called once again.

“They came in through another entry way and smashed a whole window and door, tore down a display of wine and again got away with some cash,” Schlautman said.

It’s been a nightmare for the people who run the business.

“Obviously, the cleanup – all the work that has to be done to check inventory and see what’s broken, damaged, correct everything and it’s extremely frustrating," Schlautman said, adding the burglaries are out of character for the area. “Clermont is a quiet, safe, community and we want it to stay that way.”

She says officers have contacted them about a couple arrests in a different county and that the suspects could be connected to their break-ins.

Fox 35 reached out to Clermont Police, but did not hear back.

Still, the owner of the business is not taking any chances.

“We’ve upgraded our cameras systems," Schlautman said. "We have cameras outside the store, all over inside the store; we’ve actually helped a couple other businesses that got broken into recently,” she said.

Employees at two stores in the same plaza confirm they also recently experienced burglaries.