NV outiet hit three
times in two years

Shaun Conlin
Contributing Writer

INTERACTION Computer
Entertainment is one of the best
sources for video games and computer
entertainment on the North Shore —
for consumers and thieves.

The computer and video game retail and
rental store tell prey to burglars Monday night.
The break-in was the third in qwo vears. Store
owner Mark Hagenson suspects the same thieves
were involved in cach crime. “I had the exact
same thing happen a vear and a half ago,” said
Hagenson. “Though that time they disabled my
alarm first. Six months berore that they wrenched
the front door lock in the same way they did the
side door lock this time, so [ have a feeling it’s
the same people.”

InterAction Computer Entertainment, locat-
ed in the Plaza 3 shopping complex on East 3rd
Street in North Vancouver, is aot necessarily an
easy target for thieves, but the method of forced
entry indicates a level of skill.

“They broke in the side dear (te the com-
plex}, went in through the bathroom, up
through the ceiling tiles, smashed through the
adjacent wall to ny back office, through the drv-
wall, slipped through a craw! space, a foot and a
half by 1 foot anda half) and down through the
cetling ule.”

Hagenson estimates the thieves were piltening
for about five minutes before a corridor alarm
was triggered. In that time the culprits: managed
to grab the least bulky and most expensive mer-
chandise. The store computers were opened and
nwo 200MMX CPUs were taken.

The thieves also bagged (literally) several
brand new Nintendo 64 game consoles, boxed
Nintendy 64 games, which are slighdy smaller
than a video cassette, and) Sony Playstation
games, which are the exact shape and size of a
typical music CD.

Video games retail for $49.99 to $99.99.

Sunday, March 29, 1998 - North Shore News -— 27

Crooks target video game retailer

Hagenson doesn’t think the perpetrator will
have any problem flogging the merchandise.
“Vhey're avery popular product. Pm sure they
(the thieves) had buyers already lined up.”

Hagenson maintains an electronic security
sytem) but rues the day he disabled the crawt
space motion sensor because of a mouse prob-
lem.

“They could sort of do what they wanted to
here because FP didn’t have that motion sensor
active,”

Needless to say, Hagenson plans to reactivate
the sensor, since the mouse problem disappeared
at roughly the same time a pizza business vacat-
ed Plaza 3. Further security is being added as
well.

Under other circumstances, Hagenson might
be amused by the thieves meticulous behavior.

“They came in and pulled the garbage bag out of

the garbage can.” he said, “dumped what
garbage was in there back into the can nice and
neatly and then used the bag for their purposes.”

While Hagenson appreciates the thieves deli-
cate method, he strongly suspects he's being set
up to be hit again. “It’s almost as if they’re milk-

~ plus...

ing this place. They don’t damage anvthing, they
don’t thrash the place.”

The thieves left behind a vast array of com-
puter product and nearly all the rental items.

So while Hagenson has to swallow the esti-
mated $5,000 loss — a relatively small insurance
claim that would force his rates to rocket -— busi-
ness is continuing as usual. Hagenson is sure the
thieves want it that way. “Fim sure they") try
again a while from now.”

Hagenson docsn't think he'll ever see his
merchandise again, nor is he confident the per-
petrators will ever be apprehended or charged.

“The second time the police even caught the
guy,” said aay exasperated Hagenson, “Even
though al! the games they found were in my plas-
tic jewel cases with my store name on them, he
(the suspect) had pulled all the stickers of fF the
dises themselves, so they could t prove thes
were my discs.”

Hagenson is considering a few radical securi-
t¥ systems for immediate installation, including a
rented guard dog or a “smoke bomb” alarm. It’s
business as usual, but he said, “We're definitely
tightening security again.”

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