Sometime between 9 p.m. Wednesday and 6 a.m. Thursday, at least one suspect pulled off what a Taylor Books manager called "The Heist."
Manager Dan Carlisle said he opened the store, situated on Capitol Street, and first noticed open file cabinets and scattered folders.
He initially believed the person who closed the night before hadn't done a good job of cleaning up, he said.
Carlisle continued to the store's office, pausing as he stepped in something unfamiliar.
"I walked through a puddle of urine on my way to do that ... I didn't realize at the time," he said.
Carlisle later assumed the unwelcome visitor found a locked bathroom and became desperate.
It wasn't until he turned on a light Thursday morning that he truly knew what happened. Carlisle said he flipped a switch in the art gallery and immediately noticed the jewelry cases - each with their backings gone and their contents emptied. The store lost $1,500 worth of jewelry, he said.
The burglary seemed planned, and Carlisle said it made him feel exposed.
"It's got us all thinking about ways we can secure our establishment," he said. "But we're lucky that it was just silver and that there was no one here, and that it wasn't more serious."
The first thing Carlisle did was bring pictures of the jewelry to Kanawha Coin and Relics on Brawley Walkway, situated less than 400 feet from Taylor Books.
He discovered the shop unknowingly bought nearly half the jewelry. Its staff later gave police the seller's identification and a surveillance video, Carlisle said.
Though he is upset about the stolen jewelry, Carlisle is even more disturbed by the urine.
"That is maybe the most upsetting part of the whole thing, is the fact they defaced this business in that way," he said.
Reach Giuseppe Sabella at giuseppe.sabella@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-5189 or @Gsabella on Twitter.