An East Cleveland police officer on patrol foiled a smash and grab at a Hayden Avenue store early Wednesday.
The officer was two streets south of Hayden Sam's Deli near the intersection of Hayden and Woodworth avenues when he heard a crash. As he came upon the store two men were standing in the parking lot next to a dump truck and a pickup truck. As the officer approached one man took off on foot and the other jumped in the pickup and took off.
The man in the pickup truck got about a block into Cleveland before he took off too. Both men were able to escape.
The store had been hit once before. The suspects in Wednesday's attempted break in took advantage of the boarded up front wall, smashing into the same spot . They were not able to get inside the building.
Both the pickup truck and dump truck had Nick's Bricks on the doors and police said they believed they had been stolen.
Nick's Bricks is a landscape company based in Cleveland Heights.
