Albany Police are also investigating a string of business break-ins that happened early Saturday morning.
Cedrick Shelton, the owner of Tim's Artistic Art on South Broad Avenue, says he took a break from working around 4:50 Saturday morning to go use the restroom- that's when he heard someone breaking into his family business.
"I just heard this large crash in the glass. And I left the bathroom and I asked the guy what he was doing. Basically he said, give me all your money and I told him it had already been deposited. And then he started asking me for things around the store. At a certain point I said well I have some petty cash in the register. I opened the register and gave him the money," said Shelton.
Then the suspect took off. Around the same time Shelton had his encounter with the thief, officers noticed a break-in less than two miles away at the Dollar General on West Broad Avenue.
Officers were doing business checks when they noticed the front door window had been busted out. The suspects made off with an unknown amount of deodorants and tooth paste.
A couple hours earlier, around 3 o'clock Saturday morning Albany Police responded to an active alarm at Short and Paulk Supply Company on North Cleveland Avenue. The business had been broken into, but at this time it's unknown what was taken.
Shelton says regardless of the break ins, he still feels safe because his family business is well known in the community.
"I know a lot of people here. I didn't recognize him, he didn't look like he was from this neighborhood at all. So for me, I feel safe."
And although his alarm system sounded during the break-in, he's now considering installing cameras after this recent incident.
"Just so there will be surveillance of the store in case I'm not here. That they'll be able to have somewhere of being able to see if this happens again."
At this time it's unknown if these break-ins are related. All of these incidents are still under investigation.
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