Montreal police are investigating after a thieves broke into a West Island sports store over the weekend and made off with dozens of expensive hockey sticks.
The break-in happened at the Monkey Sports store on Brunswick Blvd. in Dollard des Ormeaux late Saturday.
Surveillance video shows at least one, and possibly two thieves breaking in through the store's roof. They then proceeded to make off with the sticks — and even had time to bundle them together to make it easier for them to cart them away from the store's display area, and then out through the back door and into a waiting truck.
"Obviously something that was planned in advance," store owner Greg Goyer said. "They knew exactly what they were doing and looking for."
Goyer says anywhere from 450 to 500 sticks were pilfered — with the sticks valued at around $300 each.
This appears to be far from the end of the story. The store has been open since August, but it's already been targeted by hockey stick thieves one other time — a week after their grand opening.
"This time, two individuals came through the front of the store and bashed through the front window. They dropped the bag, they put as many sticks in the bag as they could, and ran out."
And barely 24 hours after the latest heist, someone apparently tried — and failed — to smash the front window of the store with some sort of object, and apparently gain access.
Neither Goyer nor Montreal police would speculate as to who might be responsible for the heists.