HOUSTON — It's been a month since Nicholas Protz's Eye Elegance was broken into three times and he's still recovering. His store in the Galleria area was broken into twice and the Montrose location was hit once.
“Still waiting on glass to get rid of the beautiful plywood front we have at our storefront,” Protz said.
He's now totaled up the cost of the Cartier Glasses stolen the last time the store was broken into.
“Right around $360,000 to $400,000 worth of inventory,” Protz said.
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That tab is growing after another theft was caught on camera. This one happened on Saturday and it was while the store was open.
“Around 5:38 (p.m.) ... he entered the store with what looked like a bag of cash to make a purchase,” Protz said. “And when he found out the frame was more expensive than what he had cash for, decided just to run out the store with it.”
Just like last time, the prime target was Cartier luxury frames.
“The piece this young man stole retails for $8,500,” Protz said.
The bag of cash the man brought in turned out to be fake money.
“I think it was around $5,000 or $6,000 in counterfeit 20s,” Protz said.
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Protz still hasn't been able to fully replace what was taken.
“It's not always readily available on the shelves,” Protz said.
Now, he worries another theft is going to impact his insurance.
“It's just going to keep raising those insurance premiums and just overall raise our total cost of business,” Protz said.
He just hopes that this stops happening.
“Would really love for one of these guys to get caught at this point and just be some sort of consequences for their actions,” Protz said. “Because right now it just doesn't seem like there's any consequences.”
Protz did file another police report with HPD. He’s still waiting to hear back and for the fake money to be picked up.
KHOU 11 News has covered these kinds of robberies and thefts before and law enforcement has told us that consumers can contribute to the demand. They said if you find designer frames on places like Facebook Marketplace for deep discounts there's a decent chance they're fake or stolen.