HOUSTON — For Jamicah Taylor-Knight and Larry Rohelia, their lifelong friendship centers around two things: service to their country in the Air Force and entrepreneurship.
"Our first conversation was about basketball and sneakers," Rohelia said.
The veterans are co-owners of RichSoles Sneaker Shop, a brand new store off Washington Ave. that was days from opening. But those business dreams were shattered just after 1 a.m. Thursday morning.
"Me personally, like I'm still kind of in disbelief a little bit," Taylor-Knight told us.
Surveillance video captured the moments burglars ransacked the store and got away with roughly $20,000 worth of merchandise. Designer shoes and shirts were gone in a matter of minutes.
"Some sneakers, they range in price of, some can be you know a normal $150, $200 and some range up to $500, $600," Taylor-Knight explained.
"Just coming, walking back in here and seeing these shelves empty right now, its just an immediate reminder of like the hard work we put in just left within, as you said, a few minutes," Rohelia told us.
They have security cameras that caught every move and an ADT alarm system.
"I would've never thought this would've been me, I thought I had the right security in place to avoid these types of things," Rohelia said.
To their surprise, Houston police never showed up because they didn't have a permit for their alarm.
We reached out to Billy Rudolph with the city's Administration & Regulatory Affairs.
"Burglar alarm permits are required for both residential and non-residential alarm sites," he said in a statement. "Due to the city's 96% false alarm rate, the city's current policy is to not respond to non-permitted burglar alarm calls to better use HPD resources."
Rudolph said that before the policy change, police were spending so much time responding to false alarms, there was concern that they wouldn't have enough manpower for the real crimes.
The sneaker store owners said they had no idea an alarm permit is required for both residential and non-residential locations.
"We're not going to let some foolishness like this stop us from what we're doing, we have our goals set, we're going to do what we have to do to get back open," Rohelia said. "But this is not going to be the last of us at all."
How to apply for an alarm permit with the City of Houston
The City of Houston offers three options to apply for and purchase a residential or non-residential alarm permit.
- Online: www.houstonburglaralarmpermits.org and click the light blue “Apply & Pay Online” box.
- In-person: Houston Permitting Center 1002 Washington Avenue Houston, TX 77002
- By mail: Fill out the convenient, fillable, PDF alarm permit application found on: www.houstonburglaralarmpermits.org under the FORMS tab or on the main page at the DOWNLOAD and PRINT box. Mail the completed
application with complete payment to: City of Houston – Burglar Alarm Administration P.O. Box 203887, Houston, Texas 77216
How much does an alarm permit cost in Houston?
Residential Burglar Alarm Permits:
- Annual Burglar & Panic Alarm Permit - $50.00
Commercial Burglar Alarm Permits:
- Annual Burglar Alarm Permit - $156.64 + administrative fee $31.32
- Annual Panic Alarm - $156.64 + administrative fee $31.32
- Both Panic and Burglar Alarm - $281.96 + administrative fee $31.32
If HPD receives an alarm notification from an alarm system without a valid permit, the owner will be fined even if it's not a false alarm.
The amount of the fines are determined by the type of system.
- Residential burglar alarm system: $116.75
- Non-residential burglar alarm system: $233.50
- Residential panic or holdup alarm system: $308.21
- Non-residential panic or holdup alarm system: $490.34
The city said alarm companies should notify customers about the permit requirement but in some cases, they'd have to read the fine print.
On the ADT contract there is a clause in the services to be provided stating: Customer to obtain and pay for municipal alarm use permit if permit fee not paid to ADT and indicated in the opposite column. Failure to obtain and provide ADT with the municipal alarm use permit registration number could result in no municipal fire/police response to an alarm from the premises and/or a fine.