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For the record, these shops stick together
BY DAN NEPHIN, Staff Writer
It was a case of one city business helping out another city business, although the two are rivals.
After a thief bolted from Angry, Young and Poor on Thursday morning with a handful of used vinyl records, one employee called police and -- this being the age of social media -- another posted an alert on Facebook.
Meanwhile, David Preno, manager of the store at 356 W. Orange St., called Mike Madrigale, owner of nearby Mr. Suit records, to tell him to be on the lookout for a guy hawking records by AC/DC, Alien Sex Fiend and The Adicts.
Too late.
"He was, like, 'I just bought 'em.' It was that quick," Preno said.
Madrigale estimated the man had left his shop at 118 W. Chestnut St. three minutes before Preno called at 11:40 a.m.
"I didn't even start to clean them yet," Madrigale said.
Madrigale had paid $30 for 10 records.
Madrigale said the man, who claimed he had sold records there before, told him he'd been laid off.
Madrigale never guessed that the albums might be stolen.
"When you think of shoplifting stuff to sell, you think cell phones or something valuable," he said. "Records are large and bulky and there's only a couple guys who are going to buy them."
A police officer drove him around to look for the thief, but they were not successful. The thief was still at large as of Thursday afternoon, according to city police.
So Angry, Young and Poor gets its records back, but Madrigale is out $30.
End of story, right?
Not if Preno can help it.
He wants to encourage folks to shop at Mr. Suit Records, so he's offering a discount on used records to anyone who brings receipts from Madrigale's store through Saturday.
"If you have a local business, be friendly with other local businesses because you never know when it's going to help you out," Preno said.
And Madrigale did get a bit of a thrill out of the experience.
"Despite the circumstances, I have to admit it was exciting being in a cruiser going VERY VERY fast," he posted on his store's Facebook page.
dnephin@lnpnews.com
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