Albany police seeking suspect in business break-in

ALBANY — The Albany Police Department has released surveillance footage from a business break-in on South Slappey Boulevard reported last week in hopes of gaining more information on the crime.

Phyllis Banks, spokeswoman for the APD, said officers responded to Dollar General at 408 S. Slappey Blvd. regarding an active burglary alarm shortly after 3 a.m. Thursday. Upon arrival, officers saw the glass on the front sliding doors had been busted out.

Banks said the key holder responded to the location approximately 25 minutes after being contacted by the alarm company. She turned the alarm off upon entry into the store and officers escorted her around to determine whether or not anything was out of place. She said shirts and multiple pairs of headphones on the floor were out of place in the far aisles.

Banks said the key holder went into the manager’s office with officers to review video footage of the incident. At 3:08 a.m., a black man who is 5-feet-9-inches to 5-feet-10-inches in height and at a weight of 160-170 appeared in the footage to be walking up to the front door of the closed business. He was wearing a light-colored hoodie.

He is observed in the footage to be grabbing a couple of large rocks and repeatedly throwing the rocks at the lower glass of one of the sliding doors, ultimately breaking the glass. The man entered through the broken glass and proceeded into the store, grabbing clothing from the clearance rack in the center of the store as well as a couple of pairs of children’s headphones, Banks said.

The burglary alarm went off at around 3:10 a.m. The man appears to panic and is shown throwing everything down on the floor and proceeding to the front of store. He is observed around the front cash register and counter for a few seconds before pushing the glass out completely and exiting out the same entry point at 3:11 a.m., appearing to be empty handed, Banks said.

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