Mystery over why women spent twenty minutes breaking into safe before stealing nothing

Surveillance video at a business in Palo Cedro, California, caught two women breaking into a safe with thousands of dollars inside. It all began on Tuesday night at the True Value Hardware store. Owner Cheryl Porto said about an hour before closing, a woman with what looked like a 9-month-old baby walked into the store. According to Porto, the woman immediately cornered store clerk Matthew Williams. "Talking about tables and jibber jabber," Porto said. "And Matt looks at me and says hey there's something going on." Then a second woman came into the store walking up and down the aisles. Porto said the woman was suspicious, so she tried to keep an eye on her.



"I can't do anything. I'm helping customers. We have customers every two seconds and I'm keeping an eye on her walking up and down the aisles," Porto said. Porto has owned the business for 12 years, and she said she's worked in retail long enough to know that theft can happen. Porto said she knew something fishy was happening, but she didn't expect this. "Then the third one came around the corner and I thought to myself, oh boy where did this third one come from?" Porto said. While the first two women were downstairs keeping Porto and Williams busy, a third woman was upstairs. The video shows the third woman shuffling through the office and attempting to open two different safes.



After about 20 minutes of trying, one of the women from downstairs hands her a tool to break open the safe. Porto would later come to discover that tool was a crowbar straight from the store shelf downstairs. "They took 20 minutes of prying," Porto said. "She would come down and shop for tools to go back upstairs." In the video, the women continue to go through the items in the safe including a bank deposit bag filled with thousands of dollars and a wallet also filled with cash. Surprisingly, the women didn't take any of it. "They look through my purse, don't take a thing. Wipe it down and put it back. They take the deposit bag open it up and take all the money out put it back in, wipe it all down," Porto said.



After spending nearly half an hour breaking into the safe, the women put everything right back where they found it. "Even the Sheriff's guy looks at me and is like are you messing with me?" Porto said. "That's what amazes me. They took so much time and went through all this, and yet, didn't take anything," Williams said. Porto said the suspects even returned the crowbar to it's rightful place on the shelf on aisle 28. The three women walked out of the store before Porto realised the safe had been broken into. However, they left with nothing in hand, leaving Porto and investigators baffled. "I haven't got a clue! That's why I'm asking everyone what in the heck are they trying to get," Porto exclaimed. Since no theft was committed, investigators said they're not looking for the women.

With news video.