Unfortunately when we bought the laundromat we had a very comfortable homeless crew that came in every morning. We arrived to a group of guys all spread out they had their radio plugged in, one guy had coffee and was reading the paper like they owned the place! We looked around no laundry being done, one guy was taking stuff out of a backpack like he was doing laundry.
And at first glance, being new we believed this trick.
We shuttled them out, they were not happy. The previous owner’s passive way of dealing with this crew was to ignore them which made them very comfortable. We were not passive.
We put in security cameras. I cannot bear to look at people doing their thing it seems creepy but it has become a necessary business practice. We had to see who was hanging out.
I received an alert the bathroom door code lock was been accessed without a code, the door code system goes nuts if it has more than a few tries. I open the security camera app and there is this guy pacing back and forth he goes to the door, looks at it pokes at it and then walks away again and again. No laundry in site and thankfully nobody else in the store. He then gets a tool a c-clamp and tries to mess with a washing machine, he gets a paper bag and starts taking clothes out and I think ok he is going to wash clothes now, but no.
He opens the bag takes out clothes and starts to change, starts taking his clothes off and I am horrified because at one point he squats and I am worried he will do business on the floor because of not being able to go in the bathroom. But he just changes his clothes, then tears up his pants! why? Then throws them away, he actually looks a bit better in the new clothes. He is out of it. On something and I think changing his clothes to not get caught for something?
All the while he is pacing back and forth, he then takes a c-clamp to the machines again, opens the washing machine door puts in, takes it out, then he puts a back pack or jacket in the washing machine. And we do not know how but he got a box of soap out of the vending machine and put it in the washing machine.
At this point I call the police, I let them know I am watching someone clearly not doing laundry. They take the information and as I describe him the dispatcher seems more interested. I log off I cannot watch any more I am too worried.
The next time I log in the police have him in handcuffs, I missed the call from the police so I do not know what went on but he clearly was up to something and it was not laundry.
