Five shops, one morning: Baltimore's pre-dawn burglary run

BALTIMORE

BALTIMORE — Five businesses were broken into across Remington and the 29th Street corridor in roughly two hours early Wednesday, with burglars shattering glass doors and windows and taking cash registers and a coin machine from businesses that had just opened for the week.

Baltimore Police said the spree started before dawn and ran until around 5:40 a.m. Detectives are now working to establish whether the break-ins are the work of one person or a coordinated crew, citing the timing, the short distances between the addresses and the identical method of entry.

What happened, in order

• About 3:30 a.m. — Spin Cycle Coin Laundry, 2020 Maryland Ave. Surveillance video shows a person breaking through a window and entering, then leaving with the cash register. Roughly half an hour later, the same person returned and broke into the coin machine. Police were called to the laundry at 5:31 a.m.
• About 4 a.m. — 2700 block of Huntingdon Ave. Glass doors were smashed at two neighboring businesses, Mount Royal Soaps and Café Los Sueños. A register containing $225 was taken from one, and a register containing $500 from the other.
• 5:06 a.m. — PaperMoon Diner, 200 block of West 29th St. Two men broke a window, went inside and quickly left. Nothing was reported stolen.
• 5:20 a.m. — 29th Street Tavern, 300 block of West 29th St. A front glass door was shattered. The intruder tried to open the cash register and could not, and left empty-handed.

Four of the five businesses sit within a few blocks of one another. A business owner provided investigators with a photograph of a person dressed in all black; PaperMoon was described as the work of two males.

Owners describe damage that outlasts the loss

For Mount Royal Soaps, the break-in was a first. The shop has operated on Remington's main commercial strip since 2018.

"We've been in business here for eight years, so this is the first time it's ever happened," owner Matthew Williams said. "Our doors were smashed and a cash box was stolen out of our place and Café Los Sueños."

At Spin Cycle, the damage is a recurring cost. A worker said the laundry has been hit three times in three months, and that replacing broken glass routinely exceeds what the intruder gets away with.

"Every time he comes, he broke a window. So we gotta repair the windows. And actually, that's more expensive than what he gets," he said. The shop intends to stay. "We are here to serve, and we're not going nowhere."

By Wednesday afternoon, the response in Remington was material. Williams said longtime customers came in after hearing the news, bought things and offered support — what he called the "silver lining" of a bad morning.

A pattern that cuts against the neighborhood's habits

The break-ins land on a stretch that residents describe as generally comfortable, in part because a police presence is nearby.

"You get the police station right here, so I park my car here all the time," said Larry Davis, who lives in Baltimore County but visits often. "When you're walking around, you feel generally pretty safe. I feel fine. But I will keep a more careful eye."

That is the difficulty with this class of crime. Overnight commercial burglary is opportunistic and fast: entry takes seconds, the target is a drawer, and the response time is measured against a window that has already closed. A visible police post nearby does not change the arithmetic of a smashed door at 3:30 a.m.

What the case shows about overnight cash

The common thread across all five addresses is not the neighborhood. It is the cash on the premises and the glass between it and the street.

Businesses on the corridor can reduce their exposure without large capital outlay:

• Leave registers open, empty and turned to face the window at close, so the till is visibly not worth the entry.
• Move cash and coin to a safe or remove it nightly, particularly at laundromats where coin machines hold value independently of the till.
• Reinforce glass with security film on doors and side windows, which does not stop a break but converts a silent entry into a noisy, slow one.
• Point cameras at the entry path and the till, not the ceiling, and keep recording retention long enough to matter to detectives working a pattern.
• Report every attempt, including the failures. Wednesday's two unsuccessful break-ins are investigative evidence, and they are frequently the ones businesses choose not to call in.

Anyone with information about Wednesday's burglaries is asked to contact Baltimore Police detectives handling the case.

This article will be updated if police release additional suspect information or make an arrest.