Dramatic surveillance video captured the moments three heavily armed gunmen stormed into a corner store on Cleveland's east side and took off with only the ATM.
Joycelyn Henry, 65, has run T & J Beverage on E. 130th and Forest Ave. for 20 years. Her sewing shop sits right next door.
Tuesday night, she was closing up while training a new employee when the three masked men burst in, each one pointing a gun.
"They say, 'Go down on the floor before I blow your head off,'" Joycelyn said.
It's all caught on the store's numerous surveillance cameras. The gunmen only went for the ATM, rocking it back and forth until the bolts loosen and snap. Then, they took it to an SUV waiting outside.
At first, the thieves tried to put the machine in the backseat, but it didn’t fit.
Then, they tried to shove it into the trunk. It didn’t fit there either, but the suspects crammed it in the truck anyways and take off with the hatch open and flapping.
It all happens in less than five minutes. Luckily, no one was hurt.
NewsChannel5 told our viewers about ATM smash-and-grabs all over Cleveland and surrounding areas over the last six months. A typically stolen car slams through a store wall overnight and thieves take off with the money machine.
But with each smash-and-grab, it seems as if the thieves get bolder and bolder. T & J was robbed during store hours.
"These guys, it's getting worse and worse and worse," Joycelyn said, who is no stranger to this mind-numbing violence.
In 2002, her husband Thoywell Henry was brutally murdered as he was closing up the very same shop.
"I suffer and I decide not to take anymore. Enough is enough," she said, adding that she has been robbed at gunpoint at least four other times.
Anyone with information on the SUV or the gunmen is asked to call Cleveland Police.
