Early-morning burglary nets cash register, smokes

By Jimmy LaRoue

Published: July 29, 2008

An early-morning break-in at the Rife Road Texaco in Waynesboro resulted in a stolen cash register, money-order machine and several cartons of smokes, Waynesboro police said.

Sgt. Kelly Walker of the Waynesboro Police Department said police responded to two calls early Tuesday, the first at 2:16 a.m. and the second at 5:45 a.m. at the Texaco station across from the Waynesboro YMCA. Responding to a motion detector alarm in the store on the first call, police found the front door unlocked, Walker said. A sweep of the store found nothing missing.

However, when an employee returned to open the store, the person saw the window on the front door broken, Walker said. That’s when the missing items were discovered.

Walker said the front door’s glass was “broken, but not broken through.” Police believe that whoever broke into the store did not enter through the front door, Walker said.

It’s not clear if both break-ins are related, Walker said, but said that the second time police went to the gas station, “clearly stuff was missing.” 

The burglary is still under investigation. Walker said police processed the scene for trace evidence to come up with leads.