Four juveniles cited in downtown Beatrice business burglary

BEATRICE – Beatrice Police cited four juveniles as suspects in the burglary of a relatively new business in downtown Beatrice.  Lieutenant Jay Murphy says three of the individuals were detained Wednesday, with a fourth taken into custody Wednesday night….as suspects in a burglary of the 420 Smoke Shop. Police received a call yesterday morning reporting the break-in.

"The broke in at the rear of the building...forced the rear door open and got in. They do have surveillance cameras which showed them coming in at approximately 3:25 yesterday morning (Wednesday). They disabled the outside camera and they did that at about 12:30, so on that particular camera, it did show another person involved. We had a total of four people that were actually involved. It appeared that only three of them had entered the building."

The suspects are three males….all age 14….and a female, who is age 13…all from Beatrice.  Murphy says the suspects were wearing some disguise, including masks. But, police got enough information from the surveillance video to identify at least one of the suspects.

"They were actually cited and then turned over to probation. Probation has the final call as to whether they were going to lodge them at some place, or send them back home. I believed three of them were lodged at a juvenile facility and one was sent back home."

Police said a lot of product was taken from the store...valued at several hundred dollars. Items stolen included synthetic marijuana and glass or plastic smoking devices. Murphy said police recovered three bags of items that were believed stolen from the business and were working with the owner to identify all of the items.  Murphy said the damage to the business was confined to the rear door area.

"They broke the door jam on the back door and that was the only damage that we had seen. There were a couple of things....items that were laid on the floor throughout the business....but nothing broken."

Murphy said earlier Wednesday morning, police were called to a convenience store that reported three juveniles in the store who appeared to be intoxicated or under the influence of something. However, the individuals had left the store prior to police arriving to investigate.

All four juveniles were booked for burglary, a class four felony.