HOUSTON — Some very determined burglars left a huge mess at a Foot Locker near the Third Ward, where they used a U-Haul truck to smash down a wall and get inside.
The property manager who leases the building to Foot Locker says burglaries at the store on Old Spanish Trail near the Third Ward are nothing new. But Sina Hemmati told us he'd never seen anything like this before.
Surveillance video shows the U-Haul ramming into the building nine times before the driver gets out to look. The first attempt wasn't enough to break through the bricks and metal reinforcement, so he got back into the truck and tried again -- six more times for a total of 15!
"More than 20 minutes it took him to break into the building," Hemmati said.
He's not sure what these burglars got away with, but past thieves have cut through steel doors to steal substantial amounts of merchandise.
"Shoes, apparently shoes, it’s gotta be the shoes," Charles Solomon said.
Solomon owns the shop next door and hated seeing all of the damage the burglars left behind.
"They used to be the Wild West over here. Now, it’s just a bunch of thievery, bunch of theft," Solomon told us.
Hemmati said he hoped to attract quality tenants when he bought the property years ago but he's concerned crime will scare people away.
"I feel like this area is not a priority," he said.
We've reached out to U-Haul and they are hoping Houston police will contact them with a license plate number.
We also called Foot Locker about the case and are waiting to hear back.