Smash and grab robbery on Detroit's west side

(WJBK) - We've talked a lot about smash and grab robberies recently in Detroit after dozens of party stores were targeted.

But, this is a first, a heavy duty construction truck was used to get inside Ice Liquor Store on Detroit’s west side. 

"Some of the stuff you hear on the news all the time and then it happens to us," owner Ned Thomas said.

Ned Thomas is the owner of Ice Liquor Store; his surveillance video shows the large trucked parked across the street from his store on Warren just west of the Southfield freeway early Sunday morning.

Whoever is driving the truck takes it to the back of the store, then a huge boom and the surveillance cameras short out.

"It was a huge mess, basically this entire wall was on the floor," Thomas said.

When Thomas got to the store about a half hour later he found a gaping hole in the back of his store. When he checked the cash registers all the money was gone.

They got away with thousands of dollars in cash and even more in product. The owner says it's the cost to repair to the wall is what will really set him back.

"The damage that this person caused it just causing me disbelief," he said.

Multiple police agencies are investigating this smash and grab on the city's west side.

Thomas says he's been watching other party store owners fall victim to these thieves but didn't think he would be next.  

“The last thing is that I thought this would happen here, MY store," Thomas said.

Police are investigating, checking out surveillance hoping to get more angles in order to catch the suspects.