BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. — The Boynton Beach Police Department is investigating after three businesses were burglarized over the weekend all in the same fenced-in parking lot.
Nicholas Petrino just had his new trailer painted last week. The Isuzu truck is brand new.
His landscaping business, Fresh Start Maintenance, is only five months old.
“Devastated,” he said in an interview. “Everybody dreams of starting their own business and now my dream is on hold pretty much. I put everything I had into this business.”
He parks his truck and trailer in an industrial compound lot located at 1020 W. Industrial Ave. in Boynton Beach. The fenced in lot is shared with other landscaping companies, a limo company, boats, food trucks and more.
Just before 6 p.m. Saturday, as people from the limo business worked off in the distance, dressed in all black, sneaking along the fence line you can see the first burglar begin their work.
The first broke into the side door of his trailer, but to take the giant mowers out, they would have had to move the truck away from the back fence.
“When we came upon the truck to see how they moved it, we noticed that down here, they pulled the transmission line out. Which allows the truck to move forward,” he said, adding the pavement is at a decline.
He was hoping for an extra camera angle from a camouflaged camera he had connected to a tree. He set it up after he says his equipment was vandalized three months ago.
“After I was robbed, I came up here and checked the camera feed, and the memory card was missing out of it,” he said.
“Which makes you believe what?” we asked.
“That it was an inside job, that somebody knew it was up there.”
As the limo workers left, what looks like a white F-250 pickup pulls in.
Burglars connect it to a flatbed, owned by Clean Air, water, fire and mold restoration company. Their camera is located next door at 1040 W. Industrial Avenue.
It’s the third time they say they’ve been hit.
“It affects us because it keeps happening over and over,” said Shawn Boyd, Clean Air’s operations manager. “I don’t feel safe, sometimes walking in here I keep the doors locked now.”
The F-250 drives off with equipment from three businesses. V & S Landscaping had three of their trailers broken into as well.
“I don’t know why this would happen to me, I have no enemies,” Petrino said.
More than an estimated $50,000 worth of equipment was stolen in all.
Petrino says he met with the Boynton Beach Police Department Wednesday afternoon for an update on the investigation. BBPD told WPTV they are actively investigating.
He is personally offering a $3,000 reward if someone has information that helps lead to an arrest.