Smash-and-grab burglars hit downtown boutique

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By Mike Morris and John Spink

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

An estimated $15,000 in high-end clothing and other merchandise was stolen Tuesday during an early morning smash-and-grab burglary at a downtown clothing boutique.

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Sole owner Helene Senecharles sweeps up the broken glass inside her store as Atlanta police officer, A. Moline investigates the burglary.

John Spink, jspink@ajc.com Sole owner Helene Senecharles sweeps up the broken glass inside her store as Atlanta police officer, A. Moline investigates the burglary.

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Nearly a dozen thieves ran into the Sole boutique on Luckie Street after smashing out the front windows of the store around 3 a.m. Tuesday.

The store’s owner, Helene Senecharles, told the AJC that the thieves even took the mannequins, along with shoes, jeans, t-shirts, jackets, hats and watches.

“I’m hurt,” a sobbing Senecharles said.

“We work very hard and put a lot in this store,” said Senecharles, who said this was the first burglary since she opened the store nearly four years ago about a block off Centennial Olympic Park. “It’s going to cost us an arm and a leg to put it back together.”

Charlene Carmichael manages her mother’s store. She said she received an early morning call from the security company, “came down here and found the front window busted and the store in a total disaster, glass everywhere.”

Carmichael said that surveillance video showed a white van pulling up with 9 to 11 people, believed to all be men, inside.

“They just all ran in and out of the window, stealing mannequins, merchandise, shoes, glasses, hats,” she said.

Carmichael said the suspects “had a terrorist look to them. They had white t-shirts tied around their heads, with eyes cut out so they could see.”

She said the break-in left her feeling “violated.”

“Someone’s come in and taken everything you work hard for,” Carmichael said. “It’s not a good feeling at all.”