A couple dressed in black robs the Naughty By Night adult toy shop in a previous robbery in November 2011
However, one of the shop’s employees was determined enough to see that this crime did not go unpunished – especially since it was a repeat incident at the shop.
The break-ins actually took place on two separate nights in December 2013 at the Naughty By Night Adult Toys and Smokeshop, located in the 2500 block of East Palmdale Blvd.
According to Victoria Alba, who works at the Palmdale shop, the robbers broke in at night, throwing “giant rocks” through the windows.
“They destroyed a lot of things. There was $10,000 in damage done to the store in the second break in,” Alba said. “We were really disappointed at how the cops reacted to this. Basically they said, ‘Hey, we’re not going to be able to catch anyone, so we don’t need to take fingerprints.’”
But according to Alba, there was plenty of incriminating evidence left behind by the wreckless vandals – including surveillance video. So Alba’s co-worker, Alex Poulin, who is also the business owner’s son, decided he would take on the task of catching the culprits.
Poulin began documenting the crime scene to create a case that would warrant the attention of crime detection specialists. He took photographs of the fingerprints and a bloody handprint left behind from the break-in. He then contacted the Sheriff’s Department in Downtown Los Angeles to arrange for a fingerprint expert to process the evidence at the crime scene.
The prints eventually lead to capturing one of the men involved in last December’s break-ins.
“Alex was a real hero to solve this case – to get this bad guy off the streets,” Alba said, describing the nabbed thief as a gangbanger with very bad ties. “He’s now in jail, and he’s got a record of having done some other really bad things.”
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The Palmdale business made headlines in November 2011 when it was robbed by a couple wearing ski masks, according to huffingtonpost.com.
The shop’s surveillance camera captured the man and woman, dressed head-to-toe in black, taking $500 from the cash register along with the cashier’s wallet. But the robbers tossed the wallet back to the employee after taking out all the cash.
The Huffington Post reported that Palmdale Sheriff’s Detective John Hoyt said the two were in the store for no more than 30 seconds.