Thieves crash U-Haul through store front for smash and grab

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Water pours from inside the store in the shopping plaza on Outer Drive at the Southfield. 

Around 3 a.m. Monday a U-Haul went through the front of VIP Wear. Thieves grabbed what they could get and took off, leaving destruction behind.

“They just put it up. They just put the store here. It’s sad,” said Markila Payne, once a customer at VIP Wear.

The store has been boarded up.  The mess inside gives new meaning to the merchandise – like a shirt that says “Being bad ain’t easy”, but it seemed pretty simple for the suspects.

The damage is in the tens of thousands.

“If they keep hitting stores, nothing is going to open. They city is going down just because they are robbing places,” said Alex Fradi, who shops at the plaza.

That’s not all. The surrounding businesses are flooded and damaged as well. This isn’t the first time this type of crime has been committed in the plaza. Just before Christmas someone rammed a car through the front of the T-Mobile store. Pillars have been installed in front of the store since then.

“No one’s going to want to open up anywhere. It’s about it.”

“There’s surveillance video that has not been released. Anyone with information on the people responsible is asked to call Detroit Police.