Security alert sounds at convenience store, hours later suspects fall out of ceiling

RICHMOND, Va. - A Virginia business owner was awakened early in the morning by a security alert at his store. He had no idea he'd be chasing suspects out of the building hours later.

As David, asking only to be identified by his first name, gave an interview outside his business about an early-morning crime, people inside the South Richmond store discovered a suspected thief in the ceiling.

"We got another one inside! Out. Out. Call the police!"

It was the end of a hectic morning inside B&S Food Mart Thursday.

"Somebody cut the roof. Came in the store and took the money from the ATM," David explained.

When David and his family arrived at the store to investigate, the store appeared empty, but two hours later, while they were cleaning up, they heard a noise coming from the ceiling.

Sure enough, David said, there was someone hiding up there.

"He run away. We follow him," David explained, holding a splintered weapon. "I hit him with a baseball bat in his face and we took him down."

Police, who were on scene at the time, arrested the man, David said.

Officers then found a second person hiding in the ceiling who they arrested shortly before clearing the scene.

But, later, David said, another ceiling dweller emerged.

As customers rushed out of the store, David went inside to confront the suspected thief.

"Don't move or I shoot your ass," was heard in a recording from the scene.

Richmond Police returned, took the third suspect away in handcuffs, and searched the building again.

"Everything is fine," David said once the excitement died down. "What he did was stupid."