Newly released video from the $10 million heist at an Orlando wireless company shows crooks moving pallets of stolen merchandise and ramming them into the back of a stolen trailer.


The video shows one suspect guiding the driver of the semi-tractor trailer toward one of the bay doors of Quality One Wireless off Tradeport Drive sometime after the business closed at 7 p.m. Friday.

Another video camera caught one suspect operating a forklift and moving pallets of electronics into the trailer while the other men helped hold the trailer doors open.

Orlando police investigators also said burglars targeted the business in 2007 and 2008 - and some of the company's employees think it could have been an inside job.

After the 2008 burglary, employee Augusto Urena told police "he believes the suspect(s) must be familiar with the layout of their warehouse as the suspect(s) had a good idea where to make the hole in the wall."

"In both cases [2007 and 2008] they believe an employee may be responsible," the police report from the 2008 burglary shows.

Burglars in September 2007 "gained entry into the locked and alarmed business by burning a hole approximately 5 ยฝ feet long and 2 feet high," with a blow torch, the commercial burglary report shows.

Police investigators said the suspects then removed "1,500 boxes of Samsung C416 cell phones. There were a total of 6,683 black cell phones and 1,689 red cell phones inside these boxes."

Estimated value of what was taken in the September 2007 burglary is $711,720. Surveillance cameras showed one suspect taking notes during that heist.

'Meticulous' crooks

In October 2008, police were called to the business in response to a commercial alarm. When police arrived, they walked through the warehouse and noticed someone had taken a blowtorch to the rear corner of a rear door, but had not gained entry.

Three months earlier, in July 2008, police responded to a commercial burglary call at the business and at that time, the burglars appeared to have made entry through an adjoining business.

An unknown suspect in that case apparently cut a square in a rear roll-up door and crawled through, police reports said.

The alarm did not go off because the door was not opened, and the contacts for the alarm were still in place, and officer wrote.

In the July 2008 burglary, 2,800 cell phones were taken.

"The suspect(s) were meticulous in only taking the boxes in the front row, so the back row hid them from the camera," the report states.

The cameras caught the suspects pushing the surveillance cameras toward the ceiling - a similar strategy used in this weekend's incident to prevent surveillance cameras from recording the burglary.

Burglars broke through wall

Investigators said that in the latest incident, thieves broke through walls, destroyed cameras and stole more than $10 million worth of phone-related merchandise from the business during the weekend, police said.

The burglars climbed onto the roof of an empty warehouse on Tradeport Drive, entered through an access door and then broke through a wall into an adjoining warehouse for Quality One Wireless Inc.

The intruders used Quality One's own forklifts to load more than $10 million worth of merchandise on pallets into three stolen trailers outside the loading dock, according to police reports.

During the heist, the burglars dismantled several security cameras but were filmed by other cameras.

According to police, the burglars stayed inside long enough to eat meals and drink and then wipe the area clean of their fingerprints. They also found hidden cash, but the amount was not disclosed.

Police were called to the Quality One warehouse about 6:15 a.m. Monday. Eric Bunn, identified in a police report as an assistant manager and on the company's website as its vice president of inventory, told investigators that he had locked the business Friday night.

'Phone line error'

ADT Security, which monitors burglar alarms at the warehouse, alerted Bunn at midnight Friday there was "a phone line error inside of the business," the police report stated. No one was sent to check the warehouse and police were not notified, the report stated.

When Bunn returned Monday morning, he said, he found the store ransacked.

Several office doors had been opened and the ceiling had been damaged, according to the report. Then, Bunn noticed a large hole in one of the interior walls, leading to the adjacent empty warehouse.

Damage to the building was estimated at more than $50,000 and included the removal of eight skylights.

After filling one stolen UPS trailer, the burglars apparently used two more stolen trailers that were reported missing Saturday from the 2400 block of Tradeport Drive, according to police. The UPS trailer had an Oklahoma tag, number 3084EH.

Reached Tuesday night, a UPS spokeswoman said the company's trailer was empty when it was dropped off at Quality One Wireless to be filled and picked up later. There also was no tractor to pull it.

No major breaks

No tractors were reported stolen in the police reports - only trailers. That means that the suspects would have had to have their own tractor or tractors to steal the three trailers, although police have not commented on that detail.

Police are still working today to identify suspects and said they'd had no major breaks in the case since the initial report. Calls to Bunn and other Quality One Wireless officials were not returned.

It was unclear what type of merchandise was taken or whether the suspects had any prior association with the business.

Founded in 1993, Quality One Wireless specializes in the sale and customization of phone handsets and packaging for its partners, which include cell-phone carriers, retailers, insurance providers, wholesalers and dealers, according to its website.

On the site, the company lists Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, HTC, Nokia and Kyocera among the brands it carries.

Walter Pacheco can be reached at wpacheco@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-6262.