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Smash & Grab Burglaries: 23 & Counting

SHERIDAN, Colo. (CBS4) - Two more smash and grab burglaries in the Denver metro area Monday morning raise the total number of recent small business break-ins to 23.

TruckLogic, an accessory store for SUVs and pickup trucks in the River Pointe shopping center of Sheridan, was broken into early Monday morning. No merchandise was taken but several hundred dollars were stolen from the cash register.

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A rock was used to smash the front door and windows of the store at West Hampden Avenue and South Santa Fe Drive.

"It's obviously an organized effort done by these people who have this procedure," said the store owner Todd Baur. "It's kind of strange that they've been able to get away with this for a while now because it sets off alarms and there's not a lot of money typically in these cash registers … it seems like a pretty invasive and risky type of burglary to me for not much of a payoff."

Bauer said the crime surprised him.

"It was a shock to me … I thought this was a pretty safe and secure area," he said.

His store wasn't the only one to be targeted Monday morning.

smash & grab TruckLogic broken door
(credit: CBS)

"The same thing happened to the Verizon store 150 yards away from us," Baur said.

"They took an iPhone that they were able to get off a display, they weren't able to get another one. They took some fake tablets that we had, so they're not even working or real," Verizon store manager Sade Weisheipl said.

smash and grab suspect
An image of the burglar in the Verizon store (credit: Sheridan Police Department)

The suspect in the Verizon store burglary is described as being 5-foot-6 to 5-foot-11 with a thin build. The suspect was wearing "a distinctive, purple and green winter jacket and gloves," according to police.

They are two in a series of smash and grabs in the metro area after at least nine stores along South Broadway were targeted early Sunday morning.

Two more break-ins occurred at stores on East Hampden on Thursday, and several businesses in a strip mall on Hampden were targeted Wednesday.

Police say it is too early to connect all of the burglaries to the same suspect and they were working to review surveillance video. Sheridan, Englewood and Denver police departments are working together to see if they are connected. Patrols have also been stepped up.

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