American Furniture Warehouse was the scene of a strange burglary in June.
American Furniture Warehouse was the scene of a strange burglary in June.
As break-ins go, it has to be one of the more salacious and curious in years and it wound up costing a local business at least $16,250 in damaged goods.
On June 19, Colorado Springs police were called at 6:37 a.m. to American Furniture Warehouse, 2805 N. Chestnut St. The call came after an American Furniture employee reporting for work found the front door busted, an arrest warrant affidavit says.
The employee didn't enter and waited for police to arrive.
Police found that not only was the exterior door broken, but the interior door in the vestibule also had been broken, apparently with a large landscaping rock found inside the store. Though police called out inside the store asking if anyone was there, no one answered.
Once inside, officers "started to follow a trail of food on the ground, French fries, burgers, and ketchup packets," the affidavit recounts.
In the store's southwest corner, officers found food on a display bed and a woman's sandals. Officers then backed out of that area and started looking at video surveillance to determine if whoever had broken into the building ever left.
Just as officers viewing video saw a male burglar take off his clothes, an officer who had stayed behind to stand guard in the bed section advised she'd found the naked man who was "not complying with commands."
Video revealed a white male, later identified by law enforcement as Shane Purvis, 48, and a black female, Laura Jones, 35, also known as Laura Riskowsky, entered the store at about 12:30 a.m. and remained there until officers arrived.
"Prior to police contact they roamed the store damaging and pillaging most of the lower half of the store," the affidavit says. "They damaged products such as lamps, room accessories, mattresses, food, candy machine, employees' personal items, cabinets, drawers, bedding, signature/card readers, cash drawers, bed frames, and the front glass door windows, damage to carpet from food residue and bodily fluids."
American Furniture's operations manager Josh Sylva estimated the damage at $16,250 in damaged goods "to include cleaning fees and lost food product," according to the affidavit.
Despite officers releasing "less-lethal OC fogger" into the room where the suspects were found, they refused to come out.
"When officers went into the electrical room we observed the two suspects," the affidavit says. "They were laying down embracing each other, fully nude.... Shane said he had no idea what was going on and was Jesus Christ, Laura was crying and said her name was Luna Crystal."
Both were arrested and face charges of second degree burglary and criminal mischief, both felonies.
A spokesman for American Furniture tells the Indy via voicemail that all the goods that were damaged have been discarded.
Good thing, since a Colorado statute states that "No person engaged in manufacturing, remaking, or renovating bedding for sale or distribution shall use any previously used material which since last used has not been disinfected by a method approved by the department of public health and environment."
In any event, when the Indy sought the police report, including the video from inside the store, a Colorado Springs Police Department spokesperson said in an email that the video would be withheld "because there is extensive nudity on it."
Pam Zubeck is a graduate from Emporia State University. She worked at the Tulsa Tribune before coming to Colorado Springs, where she spent 16 years at the Gazette and in 2009 joined Colorado Publishing House.
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