WINTER PARK, Fla. – Thousands of dollars have been donated to A Comic Shop after masked men broke into the Winter Park store and caused significant damage while stealing a safe.
Store owner Aaron Haaland said the comic book shop, which also doubles as a bar called The Geek Easy, has been burglarized multiple times during the past 12 years, but Thursday's incident was different.
He said they were victimized by professionals who caused extensive damage. They broke in around 4 a.m., two hours after Haaland left for the night, and they got away about two minutes before deputies arrived in response to the alarm sounding.
Three masked men destroyed the barred steel doors, damaged equipment and electronics and removed a safe containing 75 first-edition comic books valued at $15,000 and $1,500 petty cash.
"So they bust in the door, run right off the stage, run back by the bar, the guy knows exactly where he's going, gets my safe and just pushes it, just dragging on the floor. Throws it, like it's a 200-pound safe, and he just throws it," Haaland said.
Haaland said from the surveillance video, he was able to read the phone number pasted onto the back of the work truck the men arrived in, but when he called the number, the owner told him it had been stolen.
He believes the burglars targeted the shop because they knew the safe was in the back office, but Haaland doesn't suspect any of his employees were involved. He added that the masked men didn't take the laptop that was on the counter or any of the more valuable comics, other than the ones that were in the safe.
"At least if they like comics and took some comics, at least there's that, but this is just, like, professional criminals hitting us just to get our safe. It just felt really dirty. Felt like the bad guys won this time, you know," Haaland said.
Haaland said the shop's insurance policy doesn't cover the damage to the property they rent out on Semoran Boulevard. There's a $2,500 deductible for damage due to thefts and the $2 million policy doesn't cover any cash lost.
That's why Haaland turned to GoFundMe to help pay to replace the two solid steel doors, which cost $1,000 each, and to replace the $1,500 in cash that was taken from the safe.
More than 100 people have donated since the campaign started on Friday and so far $4,080 has been raised, which surpassed the $3,500 goal.
"Thank you to everyone who gave to and shared this fund. We are breathing a little easier now because of all of you," an update on the GoFundMe page read. "We can afford the cost of the door replacements and made up for the stolen cash from our safe that insurance refused to cover."
Any additional funds will be used to buy another safe and cover the rest of the damages.