HENRICO COUNTY, Virginia – Brett McCray has been selling jewelry and antiques at his store, Need-Ful Things & More, on Pemberton Road in Henrico for seven years.
“It was my dream,” McCray said. “I have five stars. I mean, people love me and my customers. I even give the little ladies little coupons for a hug when they come in, because that’s just the way I am.”
But on Monday morning, the place where McCray finds so much joy turned into a nightmare.
“I built this company and now we are here today because I am afraid,” he explained.
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Surveillance video from ADT shows two men wearing gloves and masks breaking in through the rear window. They can be seen smashing jewelry counters and stealing several items.
The timestamps on the videos show that they were out in just over a minute, but caused at least $10,000 in damage.
“I just thought, ‘Oh my God,'” McCray said. “I mean, how can this happen?”
McCray says his alarm company contacted him at 1:57 a.m. Monday, just moments after the break-in. But he was asleep and didn’t respond, so ADT called Henrico police.
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It wasn’t until 7:30 a.m. on Monday that McCray learned what had happened.
“I immediately grab my cameras and see my store is destroyed,” McCray noted. “There’s glass all over the floor. The jewelry counters are smashed, so I immediately get up and get dressed. I fly here. I call Henrico and on the way here I call ADT. I ask, ‘Are you sure you called the police?’ They said, ‘Yes, we did. They dispatched and said it’s nothing. The building is untouched.'”
But McCray says when he arrived, he found glass everywhere and gold was missing. He says the store’s alarm was still ringing.
“All night long, from 2 a.m. to 7:30 a.m., until I got here, my building was not secured and the alarm was on. And when I went into my building, I thought, ‘What if they were still there or came back to steal something?'” McCray asked. “I could have been killed. I could have been shot, anything. That scares me.”
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McCray says Henrico police encountered him at his business before 8 a.m. Monday morning. He says a sergeant filed an official report, but McCray is frustrated that police did not notify him after ADT called them to the scene.
“Why didn’t you call me?” McCray asked. “There was a break-in. It was obvious. If you put a flashlight in the window and look, you’ll see glass everywhere. If you look a little to the left of it, you’ll see a hole in the wall, 60 by 40. I mean, be honest, no obvious break-in. That doesn’t make sense.”
CBS 6 reached out to Henrico Police and received a statement that included: “At 2:05 a.m., a Henrico Police Officer arrived on scene to investigate the 911 call. After checking the building and attempting to enter, the officer did not find anything suspicious and left the scene.”
The statement continues: “The Internal Affairs Office is reviewing the call to determine if there were any violations of policies or procedures. In the meantime, our Criminal Investigation Division investigators continue to follow up on leads related to this burglary. Anyone with information is asked to contact Det. Silcox at (804) 501-4897 or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.
In the meantime, McCray has to close his store for several days.
“I’m just a small business owner, that’s all,” he explained. “I’m just trying to make a living, and I’m really hurting. I have to close to finish three pairs. I have a welder who’s coming over and doing some work.”
He hopes this is an isolated incident and that this will not happen to any other business owner in the area.
“We need to come together as a community, keep our eyes open and talk to each other, you know, because it’s just sad.”
This is an evolving story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have additional information to share.
