Thieves use pickup truck in pair of store smash and grabs

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The Family Dollar on Schaefer near Fenkell was the scene of a smash and grab just before Wednesday morning.

Someone backed a pickup truck into the store at about 6 a.m. doing a lot of damage in the process. 

Just a few miles away on Greenfield - near Joy Road just a half hour earlier - the same scenario unfolded at a Metro PCS store.

Repair crews were at the store on Schaefer near Fenkell Wednesday after the 6 a.m. incident.

"Some guy tried to steal everything from the store, took a lot of our iPhones, a lot of our Android phones, accessories - Bluetooth -  it's a headache," said Claude Shamoun, Metro PCS

"Putting all this work into it," said Fabio Asmar, Metro PCS. "It's not the first time it's happened."

The owners say they were broken into about six months ago, so they secured their building with a steel door, bulletproof glass. The glass survived but the front of the store, did not.

Customers like Mia Renfro are disgusted, while the owners are disappointed but determined to stay.

"We love Detroit but just a couple people give a bad reputation to the city and look at what we have to deal with at the end of the day," said Shamoun.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Detroit police at (313) 596-5200.