DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – The outside of a spy shop caught on fire when an attempted burglar used a blowtorch to try to gain entrance through the front door, according to the Daytona Beach Police Department.
Surveillance video recorded on July 24 at Rick Raymond Investigations & Spy Equipment shows a man getting out of a Nissan that pulled up shortly before 5 a.m., getting a blowtorch out of the vehicle then using the large-scale acetylene torch to attempt to gain access through the door.
The man tries for several minutes before fleeing the scene as smoke starts to billow, video shows.
"He's looking at a window that he's trying to get in and he's seeing flames go up the window and at that point, I think he realized he couldn't get in," shop owner Rick Raymond said.
Police said the man using the blowtorch and the two other men in the Nissan all had clothing items covering their faces.
Firefighters extinguished the flames before they spread to the inside of the business. Initially, authorities thought that the fire was started by an electrical current connected to the door locks but they discovered that wasn't the case once they investigated further and checked the surveillance footage.
The owner of the shop, who was in Canada at the time, said that in June, burglars tried to break in but were thwarted by the hurricane glass on the front door. He said the masked men hit the glass at least 50 times.
Raymond believes that both incidents are connected and he hopes the attempted burglars give up their efforts.
"You're not going to get in the building and each time you come, our security gets better and better and better. If you need any security products, ours are pretty good," Raymond said.
No arrests have been made.