Group breaks into South City business, steals golf carts, $120,000 in items

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) – The owners of Getaway Carts in Benton Park say a group of thieves broke in and stole golf carts, tools and more than $120,000 of merchandise.

“They clipped the lock off and came into here,” said Getaway Carts co-owner Fred Ackermann. “Got up here and that’s when we saw everything was missing. We started this 10 years ago in my garage.”

Ackermann’s co-owner Joe Piantanida says they’ve built the business from scratch and are offering a $10,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest. Ackermann and Piantanida say eight golf carts, pricey tools, batteries, tires, rims and a lot more was taken from Getaway Carts. They say over the span of an hour, the suspects came back several times.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department (SLMPD) says five suspects broke into the business Thursday morning around 2:00 a.m. Video shows the group wearing masks and gloves.

“We’re just going to keep going, every day, new hurdles have always happened to us, but every day we keep going,” said Piantanida.

Piantanida says six of the golf carts stolen were brand new.

“Like I said, we started this from the ground up and it’s pretty violating when somebody comes in and takes stuff from you,” said Piantanida.

Police say one of the carts was located nearby.

The owners say as they watch video of their business being burglarized, the suspects look very coordinated and they hope they’re all caught.

Copyright 2024 KMOV. All rights reserved.