Images from the security video at Union Mart on Union Street show two thieves at work in the store and provide details for investigators about their clothing and appearance. Anyone who recognizes either burglar who has any other information about the crime, or a similar crime in Agawam, is asked to call Westfield detectives at 572-6400.
WESTFIELD – City detectives are working with their counterparts in Agawam in search of burglars who broke through the roof of a convenience store and may have executed a similar crime in Agawam.
Westfield police responded to an alarm at the Union Mart store on Union Street on Monday, Oct. 7, and found that thieves had broken into the store by removing roof shingles and prying up the underlying plywood roof to gain access to the attic of the building.
Finding themselves above a tanning salon, the burglars broke through a partition to get above the convenience store in the building which they entered through its ceiling.
The two thieves can be seen on the store’s security video, Det. Sgt. Stephen K. Dickinson said, as they drop out of the ceiling to pry open the cash register and to steal a tablet computer as the alarm sounded.
Dickinson said that a few days later he was contacted by Agawam detectives who advised him that a similar crime had occurred in their city two days later.
Agawam’s Det. Lt. Richard Light said later, in a brief telephone interview, that the target of the crime in Agawam was a Valero gas station near the bridge which connects Agawam with Memorial Drive in West Springfield.
Light said that burglars “hacked through the roof” after they got on top of the flat roofed building under the cover of darkness and gained access to a bathroom.
A detective said that the gas station usually closes between 10:30 and 11 p.m. and the crime was reported the next morning at 6:21 a.m.
Once inside, Light said, they thieves made off with an undetermined amount of cash.
Dickinson said that the security video from the site of the Westfield break-in showed the thieves to be two young men.
By its nature, the security video is grainy and indistinct but Dickinson said that he believes the two intruders to be young Hispanic men.
The images show that both men were wearing hooded shirts and ball caps.
One was wearing what appeared to be a baseball or other athletic type jacket with contrasting colored sleeves while the second man wore an apparently quilted solid colored jacket.
Dickinson asks that anybody who recognizes either suspect seen in the images taken from the security video, or has any other information about either crime, call city detectives at 572-6400.
