Thousands of dollars in sunglasses stolen from family owned business in Old Saybrook

OLD SAYBROOK, Conn. (WTNH) — Thousands of dollars worth of sunglasses were swiped from a family owned business in Old Saybrook.

“Tiptoed in, boom, gone!” Eric Cartier, employee of Cartier Optical, said.

Cartier Optical has been in Eric Cartier’s family for decades. They have locations in Old Saybrook and Niantic.

“You try and service the community,” Cartier explained. “You try and provide good products. You try and make it not feel like everything is changed up. But this kind of incident makes you think, do I need to lock everything? Do I need to have everything watched all the time?”

Surveillance video, captured from inside the store, shows two men walk in, grab sunglasses and put them into a bag. Cartier estimates $10,000 worth of product was stolen.

“The first guy sees there’s a couple that are loose and you see a big smile come across his face,” he said. “They just hammer down.”

Following this incident, Cartier told News 8 he contacted the police and increased security at the store by installing additional cameras.

“It’s pretty violating,” Cartier said. “It’s not a pleasant thing. I’m really glad staff didn’t confront them or get hurt.”

He also shared photos of the men to the business’ Facebook page, hoping someone knows who they are.

“I don’t expect anybody to get caught, but I hope it prevents them from doing it to someone else,” he said.

Anyone with information is being asked to give Old Saybrook police a call.

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