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Build The Wall (Better) -- Thieves Hit Computer Store By Tunneling Through Nail Salon

TOLUCA LAKE (CBSLA) --The thieves who stole from a computer store have not yet been nailed -- but they went through a nail salon to commit their crime.

The story is straight out of Hollywood and not far from it.

KCAL9's Laurie Perez reports like in a Hollywood movie, it was lights, camera and action.

Only these cameras were security cameras. They were rolling just after 5 a.m. Wednesday.

You can see wall decor and things on the desk shaking. And then two guys appear and they have apparently seen a heist movie or two.

"It's 'Prison Break' style, you know, come through one section, get out the other," says Blake Purdy.

The men tunneled through a wall and found themselves in the rear of the nail salon next door to Purdy's boutique computer shop in Toluca Lake.

The thieves then headed into a facial room to start busting through another wall.

"I actually saw that live as it was happening," Purdy says.

Robbers Tunnel
(credit: Blake Purdy/Surveillance video)

He owns an extensive security system that caught the thought-they-were-clever robbers getting into his place.

The men then spot a motion detector.

"There's one right here to the left, there's one right here to the left." Purdy points out.

And then the motion detectors went off. This set off a mad dash for the thieves who grabbed a PC and the only iMac not tethered down. They apparently realized that anything that wasn't locked up is just used for repairs.

"[He] notices that those are part computers that have problems and then he looks down at the PC and goes, well I just broke that by dropping it, and ends up with nothing," Purdy says.

Tonight, he's hoping someone recognizes the men on the video and helps keep them from stealing anything ever.

"I just don't want them to gain experience, you know," says Purdy, "I don't want them to feel they can get away with this."

At least one of the thieves was not wearing gloves so police are headed to the store to collect fingerprints.

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