Raleigh business struggling after video shows thief stealing thousands in equipment

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- A Raleigh small business owner is hoping someone can identify a thief who has put his electrical company in a bind.

Ricky Mullins, the owner of M-Power Electric, reached out to ABC11 with a surveillance video given to police in the hopes that someone can identify the man.

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The video shows a man in a dark Nissan pickup truck pull up behind the commercial space that Mullins leases on ACC Boulevard early in the morning on Saturday.

After smashing in the windows of one of Mullins' work vans, the man stole $4,000 worth of tools and equipment.

Mullins has watched the video over and over again and is convinced someone can put a name with the man in the video.

"If you knew the person you would recognize him," Mullins said. "He has a certain walk so hopefully somebody out there can identify him for us."

Mullins started his own electrician business just three years ago and decided to expand into a rented space just three weeks ago. The timing of the theft clearly couldn't have been worse.

"Small business. Tight budget. Stuff like this really affects us," he said. "I think a lot of criminals don't realize that. They think they're getting a company and insurance is going to pay for it. Well we're out of pocket for about $4,000 here," he said.

Mullins says the crime has taught him some hard lessons--lessons he'd like to pass along to other small business owners.

The first lesson: take a look at your insurance coverage.

"You need to check and make sure you have the right insurance in place. I pay a lot of money for our insurance but it doesn't cover our tools," Mullins explained.

The second lesson: make sure you inventory your business' property.

"I didn't spend the time I should (have) on writing down all the serial numbers to make it easier for the police officer to find our tools," he said.

Despite his financial circumstances, he's offering a $500 reward for information that leads to the arrest of the suspect.

"The most important thing to me is finding him so he can't go out and do this again," Mullins said.