ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A person who broke into The Soda Fountain early Monday morning ended up leaving with $1,000, according to the owners of the College Park shop.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou got to be pretty down bad to rob a family-owned ice cream shop,\u201d Nina Plewa said, speaking to News 6 inside The Soda Fountain Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
Plewa and her husband are the new owners of the well-known College Park shop, having taken over in March.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just wanted to bring a little bit of life back into it and have something for our son that\u2019s special, and for the community, for kids,\u201d Plewa said, holding her 11-month old son, Rome. They plan to rename the shop Rome\u2019s Corner.<\/p>\n
And while she\u2019s used to seeing Rome crawl around the shop\u2019s floors, on Monday, she was viewing security footage that showed a stranger crawling inside. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe see this guy, like, in a full ski mask in an all black outfit, crawling around the store, opening the cash register, taking everything out, going into the kitchen, opening our drawers,\u201d Plewa said, describing the video she shared with News 6.<\/p>\n
Donning a black ski mask that obscures his face and dressed in all black, the person–who appears to be a man–is seen from multiple angles roaming through the store. He appears to be attempting to be inconspicuous, but the cameras catch his movements.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very violating,\u201d Plewa said. \u201cIt\u2019s something that\u2019s never happened to me before, so it was jarring for sure. Creepy.\u201d<\/p>\n
He is observed going through the cash register, which makes a loud noise when it crashes to the floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the contents were like flipped on the floor,\u201d Plewa said. \u201cSo there were like coins everywhere and just like a bit of a mess.\u201d<\/p>\n
Plewa said the person took everything in the cash register, plus deposits in envelopes. The total loss ended up amounting to $1,000. <\/p>\n
Then there was the door that the person broke to get inside the shop — the one entrance that doesn\u2019t trigger an alarm.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe door is like $2,000 to fix,\u201d Plewa said. \u201cSo that was worse than the cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
As first-time owners of a brick-and-mortar store, Plewa and her husband know that every dollar counts — especially because they\u2019re here on a work visa from Canada and cannot qualify for things like a Small Business Administration loan.<\/p>\n
But Plewa, who filed a report with Orlando Police, is keeping things in perspective.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was damage to the door but it could have been a lot worse,\u201d Plewa said.<\/p>\n
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