Police are looking for an ambitious — but foolhardy — group of thieves who broke into a local business earlier this week.

The suspects knocked out part of a cinderblock wall in order to enter Cash Express on U.S. Highway 80 in Demopolis.

The business handles short-term loans, and the thieves were expecting to make off with a wad of cash.

“We don’t leave any cash on hand,” store manager Emma Jones said.

That didn’t stop the suspects from ransacking the store.

“They went through everything,” Jones said.

They may have gotten in, but what they didn’t get was a quick payday. The suspects grabbed a cash box and fled — but that particular cash box was empty, interim Demopolis Police Chief Tim Williams said.

“They didn’t get anything except an empty box,” he said. “They worked hard for it, too.”

Investigators at the scene found fingerprints, and city law enforcement is waiting for possible information on those prints to return, Williams said.

Neither of the other two businesses that share building space with Cash Express was damaged or broken into, Williams said.