Babak Sedehi's longtime fascination with astronomy has culminated in a unique Burnaby shop offering a wide variety of telescopes. The store was broken into Wednesday morning and $20,000 worth of telescopes was taken.
Photograph by: Larry Wright file photo , BURNABY NOW
Babak Sedehi doesn't know what the two people who stole 10 telescopes worth $20,000 from his Burnaby store are going to do.
"You can't sell these because this is not a general consumer item," said Sedehi. "One of the telescopes they took, there's only one of them in Canada and only three in North America. ... You can't sell these items because everybody in the (telescope) community will know where they came from."
Sedehi is the owner of Burnaby-based Canadian Telescopes, which is located next door to the Burnaby NOW offices.
Early on Wednesday morning, Sedehi got a call from the police telling him his business had been broken into.
"We have it all on surveillance video," said Sedehi. "Two cars pull up, one's a hatchback and the other's a minivan."
Sedehi said two men then tied a harness around the front door, and then used the minivan pulled the front door off. From the video, Sedehi said the two men then went in and handpicked 10 telescopes and were gone within minutes. Both men were wearing stockings or balaclavas that covered their faces, said Sedehi.
"They knew what they wanted and that's what they took," said Sedehi. "I think it's proof of how desperate these people are. They went for the items with the big price tags and now they'll realize they can't sell them. ... The police have the serial numbers and we'll get those out to the pawn shops."
Sedehi started his business in 2009. The store was previously located in Coquitlam but moved to Burnaby in 2012.
Sedehi said insurance will cover his losses, but he's still very disappointed at being broken into.
"I just don't understand why people would do this," he said.
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