WINTER PARK, Fla. – A local small business in Winter Park was the target of a brazen early morning burglary on Thursday.
Carlos Tamajon, owner of “The Crafty Gamer,” said the incident left his family store with shattered glass and a financial setback.
Tamajon described the moment he learned about the break-in.
“I was asleep at home with my kids, and I woke up very early in the morning to one of my friends who helps run the business and just, ‘Hey, the cops called me, not sure what’s going on.’ I came here to broken glass, you know, and things blocking my door. It’s not a call I wanted to get so early in the morning. My kids came by earlier and said, ‘Daddy, what happened to your store?’ It was cringy having to explain to them some people don’t wish you well all the time. To be honest, you kind of disconnect a little bit. It was just like, hard to believe,” said Tamajon.
Surveillance footage from inside “The Craft Gamer” shows the suspect smashing the window, heading straight for the cash register, and fleeing the scene in about 20 seconds.
“If you steal from us, it’s a couple hundred dollars, a couple thousand dollars. That sets us back weeks, if not months sometimes. We are such a small store,” Tamajon said.
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Despite the setback, the local community quickly rallied to support the family-owned business.
The community wasted no time,” said Tamajon. “We had people who came in helping us sweep glass. We had our neighbors find us someone who could replace this glass the same day. They helped us sweep everything away.”
The Orange County Sheriff’s Office reports that the suspect had fled by the time deputies arrived, and the investigation is ongoing.
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