Thief drops into YMCA, steals play money from toy cash register

INDIO, Calif., Sept. 19 (UPI) -- Security camera footage from a California YMCA shows a burglar break into a playroom through a ceiling and steal money from a toy cash register.

The surveillance footage, recorded Sept. 10 at the YMCA Doris Mechanick Child Development Center in Indio, shows a man drop into the playroom through the ventilation system in the ceiling and immediately target what may have appeared in the dark to be a real cash register.

The cash register was a plastic toy, however, and the cash the man fled with was worthless play money.

The YMCA said repairs have been made to the ceiling and air conditioner.

Indio Police Sgt. Dan Marshall said the thief may have been behind previous, more successful burglaries.

"Thieves tend to have a specific MO with stuff that they follow and stuff that they get comfortable with. If they don't get caught doing it once and they think it's a tried and true method and then they stick to it," Marshall told KESQ-TV.