Burglars Wipe Out Business in Broad Daylight

KENNESAW, Ga. -- A family's small business was all but wiped out in minutes Monday afternoon when burglars stole the tools of the family's trade -- in full view of onlookers and security cameras.

"They knew what they were doing," said Trevor McDonald, who, with his wife, Ashley McDonald, own a home remodeling business, McDonald Remodel and Construction, based in Kennesaw.

McDonald had parked his pickup truck and small trailer in the parking lot of The Home Depot at 2295 Lawrenceville Highway, which is just inside the Perimeter in DeKalb County. McDonald walked inside to buy supplies for his next job.

"They probably followed us into the store. And one guy just stole everything while the other guy was watching us."

The crooks -- DeKalb County Police believe there were two -- with apparently no fear of getting caught, at about 1:15 in the afternoon, in that busy Home Depot parking lot, cut the locks on McDonald's trailer, opened it up, climbed inside, and took what they wanted.

Minutes later McDonald was back at his truck and discovered the break-in.

"And I looked at the top shelf" inside the trailer, "and saw that 90 percent of the tools were taken from the top shelf."

A hammerblow to his business. They were the tools he used the most. And after he and his wife took an inventory of the missing tools, they added up the replacement costs -- almost $4,000, if they were to buy new replacement tools.

McDonald said that, for him, in this economy, "It's four months' salary."

Ironically, McDonald said, unless the thieves were taking the tools for their own use, they're not likely to get much for them at pawn shops or wherever else they might try to sell them, since they were used tools. In good shape, but used.

One of the onlookers who saw everything was a Home Depot employee. She saw, from a distance, two men breaking into McDonald's trailer, then stealing the tools. She said the crooks worked fast. They were gone before she could finish calling 911.

She said they drove away in a blue Kia Optima with no license tag.

McDonald is hoping police release the store's surveillance video, and he's hoping the video is clear enough to help police identify the thieves who took his livelihood.

"Since we're a small business, we don't have the money to insure everything, so our business is insured but not our tools."

A rough day for the McDonalds, learning tough lessons ("Hopefully, we'll be able to scrape by this year") and determined to make their business survive, somehow.

"I've heard it from other contractors -- it's happened to them. But, you know, we figured locks and locking everything up would be enough. And, you know, with it being in a Home Depot parking lot during the day, it would be enough. But I guess not. They're getting more daring, now. It's ridiculous."