HOUSTON — A Houston resale store is hoping dozens of high-end coats can be recovered after they were hit by burglars for the second time in just over two months.
“We’ve been in business, almost 20 years, and never have had break-ins like this,” Michelle Puckett previously told KHOU 11 News.
If the name Michelle Puckett or the name of her business Designer Diva Resale sounds familiar, it’s because they are. In October, KHOU 11 covered a burglary at the store where thieves broke in, bending security bars, eventually getting away with more than 60 high-end vintage furs, totaling more than $700,000. Days later, Puckett completely updated her security system.
Puckett said she never expected something like this to happen again.
Sadly, she was wrong. Early Wednesday Puckett’s new cameras captured bandits breaking glass, bending security bars, and burglarizing her business yet again.
“I’m very upset. It saddens my heart,” Puckett said. Puckett believes the same criminals are behind both burglaries.
The video shows the crooks trying to figure out how to shut off Puckett’s new sirens. They eventually give up and make a beeline for what they were after -- high-end vintage fur coats.
Moments later, the video shows the getaway car pulling up, and the bold bandits get away just minutes before Puckett and HPD show up. Puckett said this time, they got away with 37 coats, totaling more than $300,000.
But Puckett said she had a tracker on these furs, and minutes after the burglary, she checked the location and saw where they were. She notified the officer at the scene.
“I just couldn’t believe it, I go I’m telling you where they are, and that’s when he said, 'I get off in a couple of hours. I’m trying to dispatch someone out there,'” Puckett told KHOU 11 News.
Puckett explained that wasn’t the end of nightmarish Wednesday. When the tracking device notified the furs stopped in a residential area she notified Houston police.
“He said it’s the sheriff’s department, so I had to call the sheriff’s department, and they said no it’s HPD. This is over 20 phone calls back and forth,” Puckett told KHOU 11 News.
Still, days later, Puckett said the location of the furs hasn’t moved, and she says neither agency has approached the vehicle or the address the tracker is indicating.
“Shame on you," Puckett said. "That’s what I wanna say. Shame on you for not taking care of this. You know, I went through all the effort, the expense, the money. I stayed up here all day at three in the morning trying to do the research and investigation and help them out. What did you do? Nothing… Do something about it."
KHOU 11 News reached out to both HPD and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The Sheriff’s office told KHOU 11 that HPD is the lead agency in this investigation. As for HPD, they said a detective is currently investigating the area of the furs' last known location.