Burglar crawled through ceiling, stole $5K from Rock Hill Hobby Lobby

Rock Hill Police detectives are looking for a burglary suspect who authorities say took at least $5,000 from Hobby Lobby this weekend after breaking into the store by crawling through ceiling vents.

The burglary happened overnight Friday, sometime before 8 a.m. Saturday, store officials told police. The suspect is accused of climbing an outside wall by shimmying up a gas pipe and entering the store through an air conditioning vent, according to police records.

Officers believe the suspect crawled through the ventilation system in the Hobby Lobby ceiling and reached an employee break room, where he then cut a hole in the wall to access an office where a safe is located. The store’s manager estimates that the burglar stole between $5,000 and $7,000 in cash.

Before leaving through the vents the same way he’d entered the store, the suspect also stole money and two Snickers bars from a vending machine in the employee break room, police say. Detectives believe the burglar used a folding chair to climb on top of the machine to reach the ceiling.

The Rock Hill Hobby Lobby is located on Meeting Boulevard, off Dave Lyle Boulevard near the Galleria Mall. The store’s manager told detectives that similar burglaries have happened at other Hobby Lobby stores recently.

Detectives say video surveillance from the store during the burglary is not available.

This story was originally published March 9, 2015 at 2:44 PM with the headline "Burglar crawled through ceiling, stole $5K from Rock Hill Hobby Lobby."