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Cleveland convenience stores ransacked, store owners demand faster police response time

Posted at 10:25 PM, Dec 07, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-07 22:28:08-05

Cleveland police are searching for four suspects who vandalized multiple convenience stores on the city's east side.

The suspects where caught on surveillance video at two locations, toppling store shelves, stealing items and traumatizing store patrons.

Ron Dhillon owns the Convenient Food Mart on St. Clair Avenue near E. 185 and said the vandals busted up his store at around 8:30 p.m. on Dec. 6.

Dhillon said his employees quickly dialed 911 for police, and managed to trap the four suspects inside the store for more than 20 minutes by locking the front door.

However, Dhillon said the vandals were finally able to defeat the front door lock and escape before police could arrive.

Dhillon believes if police response time was better, the suspects would have been arrested.

"You can see they are vandalizing, and now they are trying to get out, but the doors are locked," said Dhillon. "So they were locked inside more than 20 minutes. If the police come on time, this mystery would have been solved, for all of the stores, where they are looking for suspects."

Dhillon said the same suspects hit the Convenient Food Mart of E. 200 just an hour earlier, and reports police told him the same crew vandalized two other stores in a three hour period.

Dhillon believes more police are needed in Cleveland's 5th district.

"I mean I pay good amount of sales tax, keep the city happy, keep the state happy, and I think I deserve a little better than this," said Dhillon.