Wilmington business owners concerned over crime on Old Eastwood Rd

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — Crime is a concern for some business owners on Old Eastwood Road in Wilmington.

Trip Yost owns J. Yost Electric. He says someone broke into one of his work vans early Monday morning, stealing thousands of dollars worth of equipment.

According to Yost, he wasn’t the only victim. He says vehicles belonging to two other businesses were broken into and items were stolen.

Unfortunately, Yost says this isn’t the only time crimes have happened.

“My vehicles have been broken into at least five or six times, three or four times we’ve had the catalytic converters stolen, another vehicle out here had his gas tank stolen out from underneath his vehicle in the parking lot,” Yost said.

He says there have been dozens of break-ins in the area over the last several years and crimes like this are a major blow for small business owners.

“The guys that were on that vehicle did not work at all today because it took…you know, the vehicle had to sit in place all day long waiting for a CSI Unit. They were tied up with another shooting across town. So that vehicle was out of commission all day long,” Yost said. “It’s not just the theft, it’s the amount of work we’re losing, the customers that are upset that we can’t show up because of the crime that’s going on.”

This time Yost hopes police will be able to catch who’s responsible.

“I think a big concern with everybody, I think including law enforcement because we’ve spoken with them about it as well, is that eventually, good people are going to do bad things,” Yost said. “Hopefully, they can get a handle on this and we plan on catching whoever is doing this stuff.”

Lieutenant Greg Willett with Wilmington Police says they are investigating the incident and rely on information from the public to solve crimes like this one.

“You have to trust the process and know that we are out there patrolling the street,” Willett said. “We are out there investigating. We are trying to recover people’s property and we are trying to put people in jail that are stealing people’s property.”

Anyone with information on this incident should contact Wilmington Police at (910) 343-3600.