SOUTHPORT, Fla. (WMBB) — A locally owned Bay County company has become the latest victim in an organized crime spree. 

“Monday morning, at 4 o’clock I got the phone call that we had door stolen. I was here at 5:30ish. When you walk out there and you see half of your guys standing around, cops everywhere, doors missing,” Operation Manager of USA Concrete in Panama City Jason Suggs said. 

A series of local businesses have been targeted by a new scam.

Owners of A-1 Septic said early Monday morning a group of individuals broke into the fenced-in area at their property in Southport stealing the doors off of two of their vehicles.  

“To go out there in 30 seconds or a minute, remove these doors and then have the possibility of making several thousand dollars, it is lucrative for these people that have figured it out,” Captain of Bay County Sheriffs Office’s Criminal Investigations Jason Daffin said. 

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement knew it was coming and spread the word.

“Probably about a month ago, so we knew it was just a matter of time because this is in the Southeast,” Daffin said. 

Despite the forewarning, targeted businesses were seemingly blindsided. 

“The gate was locked as it usually is, and I park around the back,” A-1 Septic manager Meagen Clayton said. “So I went by there and I could see through my pump trucks…I called Christie and then the sheriff’s office and of for they came and fingerprint nothing on the pictures and filed a report.”

 With companies being robbed across the southeast, manufacturers haven’t been able to keep up with the sudden spike in demand for new doors.

“It seems as though the reason they’re all back orders, so many of these doors are being stolen,” Daffin said. 

Once the doors are stolen the truck no longer meets the required safety standards and must sit idle. 

Captian Daffin said it’s still unclear exactly why they target these specific doors. 

“Originally we were under the impression that the electronic devices in the door is what they were going after,” Daffin said. “After doing some more research, it seems more like getting the door and selling it as a whole.” 

They are, however, confident they will find and arrest those responsible.

A-1 Septic is offering a large reward for any information leading to the recovery of their doors or the arrest of those responsible.

If you have any information call the Bay County Sheriff’s Office at (850) 747-4700.