‘Jumbled, shocked. I couldn’t even process’: Burglar smashes through brick wall, steals thousands from Adams Morgan business

WASHINGTON ( DC News Now ) – A business in Adams Morgan is out tens of thousands of dollars, after a suspect broke through the wall of a neighboring business and burglarized the store.

“Jumbled, shocked. I couldn’t even process all of it,” said Tam Le, who works at Le Liquor.

Le said he entered Le Liquor to open the shop Wednesday morning, only to find cases of beer smashed and knocked over.

On further inspection, he noticed jewelry and watches from joining Le Jewelry missing. And, a small hole busted through the wall of the building, opening into the neighboring storefront.

“They just broke through the side of the wall, that’s unfathomable,” he said.

Le said a neighbor reported hearing banging coming from the vacant building adjoining to Le Liquor around 2 a.m.

Surveillance video from inside Le Liquor shows a masked person popping into the store, through the wall, with a crowbar in hand at around 5:30 a.m. Le estimates the suspect smashed through roughly three layers of brick, which separated the two storefronts.

“It’s honestly like five, six, I don’t know how many hours of work, how long they were banging there,” he said.

The store has not completed inventory yet but expects that roughly $100,000 worth of jewelry and watches were stolen from Le Jewelry.

The break-in comes less than two weeks after Le said someone tried to break through the back wall. At that time, the suspect did not successfully enter. Le said the family was able to patch up that hole and reinforce the wall.

He’s now hoping for more police presence in the area.

“I just hope they get caught. That’s a lot of money we work for,” he said. “We’re out so much, we could go out of business, it’s tough.”

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