BATON ROUGE - A pair of thieves targeted a property management rent check drop box over the weekend and got creative to fish the checks out. 

The two thieves used some double-sided tape to grab the checks out of the box. With check washing happening around Baton Rouge, the business owner is warning others about what happened to him.

Jeffrey Welsh has been in the realty business since the 80s and says he's never seen anything like this. The thieves targeted the drop box at The Key Finders on Sherwood Commons Boulevard in Baton Rouge. They fed double-sided tape into the rent collection box to fish out checks dropped off by tenants.

"Just when you think you have all the safety measures in place someone comes by and proves you wrong," said Welsh.

The thieves took two rent checks and two money orders dropped off by tenants. It wasn't until Welsh called the tenants to see about their rent money that he learned what had happened. He rolled back his security footage to see the tenants drop off their rent checks. Later that evening the two thieves came by to fish them out of the box. They wore masks and one of them had on an "anti-social" sweatshirt.

"One of them took their cell phone, taking pictures so he could see what was in there," said Welsh.

Welsh says he has learned a lot from this experience and is getting the word out to other rent collection companies to protect their business.

"If we can help another property management company or another real estate company to really just review their safety or security measures as far as that's concerned then that's a good day's work," he said.

That drop box is out of commission for the time being until new security measures can be put in place.

Welsh filed a report with the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office.