FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – More details were revealed Monday about how a man broke into a business over the weekend in Fort Lauderdale.
Authorities confirmed the suspect, identified as Ricardo Mathurin, 35, broke into three businesses early Sunday morning to get into Lucky Pawn and Jewelry on Davie Boulevard near Southwest 131st Avenue.
“It’s been pretty surprising for us,” said pawn shop owner Alexy Carballiera. “It’s the first time someone breaks in. It’s new, this kinda thing.”
“I get a call from the alarm system. My motion sensor caught some movement inside of the business,” one business owner told Local 10 News.
The owner of Salon Alex didn’t want to reveal his full name, but said he knew something was wrong as soon as he arrived to his business, so he immediately called police.
“He don’t care about (the) noise of the alarm, nothing about that,” the owner said. “He just want to jump in the pawn shop and do the damage he did.”
The salon owner said the burglar got in by breaking a hole in the wall and pushing a cubby out of the way. The owner said he then tried getting into the pawn shop by breaking a hole in the wall, but it didn’t work, so he broke in through the roof.
“He was really desperate, for sure,” the owner said.
The Fort Lauderdale Police Department’s SWAT team was called to the scene because police said the burglar barricaded himself inside the pawn shop and threatened to get into a shootout with officers.
A negotiator eventually convinced the burglar to surrender, but police said he reached for his waistband, causing officers to hit him with a less lethal projectile – possibly a rubber bullet.
“But I thought it was a gunshot. I heard the man scream, ‘Ahh!’ Nicole Brown, who witnessed the incident, said.
Mathurin was arrested on charges of burglary and resisting an officer.
As for the business owners, they now have to pay hundreds of dollars in damage to their stores at a time when they’re already struggling.
“You know, (we) have the pandemic going on. We’re just trying to keep alive with the business,” the salon owner said.
Business owners said surveillance videos at the shopping plaza weren’t working because the burglar cut the power.
Mathurin is expected to face a judge sometime Monday.