Break In

I got a call at home about 7 a.m. on May 1 from the Carbondale Police Department, letting me know that someone had forced in the door of the store. Arriving I found two police cars there, along with two officers. They entered the store with guns drawn and searched it to see if anyone was still there before letting me enter.

Someone had heaved a 25 pound (more or less) concrete block through the bottom of the front door, crawled through and done it again to the bottom of the inside door. I found the blok lying a good dozen feet inside the store, in front of the store TV. Bits of broken glass covered the carpet in the vestibule and for a good six to twelve feet inside the store. Whomever crawled through the inside door failed their reflex save as the police found blood on the glass and took a sample to send to the state forensics lab.

The thieves weren't very good at their job. Near as we can tell, the only things stolen were a Magic Sliver Deck, another doezne Magic decks and about a dozen Magic booster packs. All told, about $200. I guess they were animal lovers as they bypassed a collection can on the counter for the Humane Society with about $20 in it. They also aren't very good Magic thieves as none of the singles were touched, nor was the $100 From the Vault on the shelf near the Sliver deck. Joel half jokingly suggested, and I rather agree, though there's no way to know for sure, that the thieves sale the "Games" sign, thought video games would be easy to pawn or sell, got inside, looked around and said "What is all this stuff? Where are the games?". They had some friends who had talked about Magic, saw the name on some of the packages and grabbed them so the break-in wouldn't be a total waste of their time.

Tried calling the insurance agency but they don't work weekends . Called Glass Doctor to see about getting new glass for the doors, they wouldn't be able to get anything until Monday. Called Universal Glass. They came right over and we had the glass replaced by a bit after noon.

Near as we can tell, the break-in took place sometime between 3 a.m and 6:30 am, when SIUC Police spotted the broken door. Friday Night Magic wrapped up about 11 p.m. and there were heavy rainstorms off an on until about 3 a.m. but no water inside the vestibule, which should have been wet, given the amount of rain that night.