Jim Faris opened his Rock Hill store, Hobby Stop, on Thursday to find it had been burglarized. Paint thinner from his own shelves coated the checkout counter, and pocket knives from the front display case were thrown across the store.
His office was ransacked, and the lines to security cameras, phones and computers were cut and ripped from walls and ceilings.
A model helicopter, worth hundreds of dollars, was torn from its ceiling display and stomped, its tail boom yanked at a 90-degree angle.
Shattered glass and broken tiles covered the floor.
Around $30,000 worth of merchandise was stolen from the South Anderson Road store, hauled off in three heavy-duty trash barrels on wheels to the back lot, where customers race their radio-controlled cars and airplanes during the day.
“They took everything they could,” Faris said Friday, pointing to a bare shelf that once held small boxes of expensive equipment. “And they knew what they were looking for.”
Damage totaled around $7,000, Rock Hill police reported. Faris and a group of employees stayed at the store for 10 hours on Thursday cleaning, rewiring and repairing.
A handful of customers also volunteered their time, Faris said.
The store was closed all day Thursday and reopened by Friday morning, but the stolen boats, airplanes, cars and monster trucks will take a few weeks to replace.
Burglars also stole a batch of metal detectors, and they treated themselves to some candy while destroying the place, Faris said.
Luckily, Faris said, the theft that happened nearly a week before Black Friday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, won't hurt Hobby Stop's Christmas shopping season.
Customers usually make their biggest purchases at the store within the last week or two before Christmas, he said.
But he's worried that the merchandise taken from the store will wind up under trees anyway.
“It's easy stuff to turn around and resell,” he said, “especially around Christmastime.”
Faris opened the Hobby Stop with his brother, Don, in 1992 at a space in Winthrop Commons on Cherry Road. They moved in 1995 to South Anderson Road, and the two still spend every day working at the shop with their mother and father, who are retired.
He's not surprised that thieves would steal from a small, family-owned business.
“They're going to steal from anybody,” Faris said. “Some people don't have a conscience.”
Faris said he hopes to have most of the store's popular merchandise replaced in time for Christmas but said he could make no promises.
Christy Mullins 803-329-4062
@Nyx.CommentBody@