'Hey ladies,' thief says he's lost before robbing dance studio

SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) -- A dance and production studio off Morena Boulevard was robbed over the weekend, with a studio full of people inside, and the thief announced he was there when he walked in.

The thief was caught on surveillance video around 1:30 p.m. on Sunday walking into the lobby and saying out loud, "hey ladies, I don't know where I am."

“We believe it’s just because he was testing to see if anyone would come out. Our staff was in the dance studio helping a client so she didn’t hear him. When he didn’t get a response, he immediately went behind the front desk, grabbed some things and left," said Glad Elevado, co-founder of Drip Creative Studio.

The co-founders said within one minute of entering and exiting, the thief took off with a laptop, a backpack and the car keys to one of the team member's vehicles.

“Our team is built on freelance creatives, so that laptop holds basically the livelihood of one of our photographers. It’s really sad to steal from people like that," Elevado said.

Co-founders Glad Elevado and Sylvie Gilbar grew up as dancers and creatives, ditched the idea of a 9 to 5 job, and just opened Drip Creative Studio last year.

"We took the leap of faith of building a business together and it turned out to be this space. It's been a wild journey, but it's been a great one for sure," said Sylvie Gilbar, co-founder of Drip Creative Studio.

Drip Creative Studio is a place for dancers to train and take classes, and for creatives to film music videos.

“We actually had a rain room rental that ended probably 15 minutes before he walked in," Elevado said, pointing to San Diego's only permanent rain room, where dancers can film music videos.

“We do want to install a panic bar, and then we’re going to have a different locking mechanism where people have to be buzzed in or some kind of intercom." Elevado said she's expecting the security upgrades to cost around $5,000.

"That's a big expense for a small business," she added.

Now, they want to warn other business owners to be alert, no matter the time of day, and no matter what type of business.

“We don’t have a lot of things to steal, we’re not a retail store. Even though you trust your community, someone from outside can come in and just take whatever they want.”

The owners told us they also saw on surveillance video the man breaking into three cars in the parking lot before entering their business.

They filed a police report with San Diego Police Department, and are hoping anyone with information will come forward.