"He's like a cockroach," says Majestic Automotive owner Scott Bennett who opened his Bishop Street shop a few weeks ago to discover it had become the tenth victim of a man now suspected in 33 commercial break-ins in Cambridge over the last month.
Adam Taplin, 33, is wanted on a warrant for break-and-enters that happened between June 26 and July 31.
On Wednesday, Waterloo Regional Police Service made their second appeal to the public in a week, asking for tips on Taplin's location and urging auto-shop operators to "secure their gates and doors, and have good lighting and cameras installed."
The same suspect is also believed to have broken into Riverside Fish and Chips on King Street West, where he was allegedly captured on security footage smashing the handle of his bike through the window to gain access.
At Majestic, Bennett says he kicked one of the doors behind the repair bays and crawled into the office with a flashlight where he found a small amount of cash in a locked drawer.
"They're safety glass so he really had to kick and break these," Bennett said of the doors. "Then he had to move all the equipment to crawl through."
"I came in that morning and my desk was upside down."
After discovering his business was hit July 11, Bennett called police to report the break-in and tell them he had security cam footage of the suspect. He was told to put it on a USB stick for detectives. But they never showed up.
"They never came," he says. "At 3:30 in the afternoon I said I got to clean this place up. I got a door to repair."
Bennett's daughter, a police officer in Toronto, advised him to take photos of the damage and write up a summary of what he found that morning.
He says during his initial call to police they asked him if the suspect in the video was crawling on all fours, "like a cockroach."
"I said yeah. 'Well,' she said, 'I know who it is.'"
A few days earlier, just up the street from Majestic, the same suspect broke into Warren Auto and Truck Service by kicking in doors and smashing a window.
Owner John Campbell says the suspect entered through an office he rents to a used car dealer and stole some alcohol left over from a Christmas gift pack.
Once inside Warren Auto, the suspect left a trail of destruction but found nothing of value.
"He didn't get anything from me. He just damaged stuff. Don't break shit if you can't find anything," Campbell says, frustrated with the knowledge that he's done the same to others with similar results.
As to why he thinks the suspect is targeting automotive shops, Campbell thinks he likely worked in one at some point and believes he's familiar with the layouts and where they keep their cash.
Campbell says he stopped keeping cash in his shop years ago after losing a significant amount in another break in.
Now he relies on security cameras and an alarm system, which failed to go off on the morning of July 6.
His security cameras, however, captured a man believed to be Taplin crawling into the office then standing up, at which point it appears to be under the influence of drugs.
Campbell describes his movements as "weird," saying he twitched when he walked.
Like many of the automotive shop owners he's talked to who've been victims of the suspect, Campbell says he's frustrated by the fact police haven't been able to arrest him yet.
"He's in this area around the same time. All you have to do is look for a suspicious guy on a bike," he says.
Since police haven't made an arrest, Campbell is anticipating it will happen again and checks his surveillance cameras regularly.
Equally frustrated with the lack of an arrest, Bennett didn't mince words in a Thursday post to his Facebook page.
In it he is critical of the investigation and the fact the suspect has evaded capture in a month-long spree that has now impacted 35 small Cambridge businesses.
"Come on Waterloo Regional Police you need to pick up your game. This guy is making you look like a bunch of Chumps. How hard can this be," reads the post.
Director of communications for Waterloo regional police Cherri Greeno says it's rare for police to release a photo identifying a suspect, proving detectives are exhausting all avenues in their search for Taplin.
"We are taking the investigation extremely seriously," she said in response to criticism that since these are petty crimes, police aren't focusing their efforts on catching the suspect.
She said additional patrols have also been active in Cambridge since the series of break-ins started getting reported.
Although some details about their investigation can't be released, Greeno said leads are coming in from the public that she believes they will help police make an arrest soon.
Taplin is described as 5’6” tall, approximately 150 lbs., with light brown hair, and a tattoo on his right upper arm. He's also known to ride a black bike.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 519-570-9777.
To provide anonymous information, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477 or submit online at www.waterloocrimestoppers.com.
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