It hasn’t been a good week for Glen Park merchants, to say the least.
Monday morning (July 22), after midnight, Destination Bakery was broken into. Burglars kicked in the glass door, which has since been replaced. They took the cash register, which only had around eight dollars, said Indy, a bakery employee.
In the same time frame, Higher Grounds was also hit; again the cash register was taken. It had twenty dollars in it. In the process of stealing it, the thieves knocked over and damaged the espresso machine.
Manhal Jweinat, owner of Higher Grounds, said he got a call from his niece at 6:00 that morning. Someone had notified her that the door to the cafe was open. Jweinat immediately rushed over. A pane of glass in the window of the door had been broken to gain entry. With no cash register, the cafe was closed for the day.
Later in the week, Friday, July 26, Glen Park Hardware was burglarized in much the same way. A passerby noticed keys strewn about on the sidewalk. By 7:00 a.m. the fire department had covered the window. A police officer was parked in front of the store, waiting for the owner to arrive. She had no details about what, if anything, was stolen.
At around the same time, Gialina’s Pizzeria was also burglarized. Their cash drawer was tossed into the middle of the 200 block of Joost Avenue, per a tipster to the GPA website.
Jweinat conjectures that the crimes were committed in teams because, on both occasions, two businesses at a time were hit. “It’s very upsetting,” he said.
Police reports become available to the public ten days after they’re filed and more details may become available. We are reaching out to Captain Hart, the Glen Park Merchants’ Association, and Supervisor Mandelman for more information and perspective.
Kay says
July 27, 2019 at 5:56 pmWe definitely need more police presence at night and early morning in the neighborhood.
Do we need to seat a collection or a fund to help purchase new machines – these are all small businesses.
Joan Moore says
July 27, 2019 at 8:34 pmThese are not serious crimes. No one was hurt. No one was harassed or worse. These are petty property crimes that happen every day to residents every day. Windows are broken. Petty cash is stolen. vandalism occurs. Because these are small businesses and not some residence care or garage, doesn’t make it a bigger or more important crime. In fact, business people are likely to be better covered for such losses than the average resident.
We don’t need more police. We need more good police work.
I fear we are going to see a lot more of this kind of petty crime as the economy worsens and people become more desperate and reckless.
No society has ever lasted endured the kind of wealth inequality that we have here in San Francisco.
I sense an overaction to these crimes not commensurate with their importance. People get hurt when that happens.
Bring these thieves to justice, but if we don’t need a revolution at City Hall or a crackdown on police presence because robberies have happened. They happen all the time. Business is NOT entitled to more police protection than anyone else.
When it comes to crime, we are all in this together.
Common Sense says
July 27, 2019 at 11:24 pmWorsens? The economy is the best it has been in a long time! Do you have any facts to support ANYTHING you’ve claimed here ? A small business getting robbed is no big deal ? Because they are better covered ? What does that even mea. ?
Darwin says
July 29, 2019 at 10:17 amI think you’ll find they meant that 4 break ins in a night does not make a crime wave, and residential properties frequently get burglarized, you just don’t hear much about it.
As for insurance – well I’m guessing residential properties just as often have insurance for this stuff, if they don’t they should. Maybe renters who can barely afford their rent don’t bother. My wife had a retail business that was burglarized four times in seven years (including at gunpoint) but only once was it worth claiming on insurance – businesses have deductibles and get rate hikes too! I’m guessing the OP was likening this to robberies at Apple stores and such where they just treat it as a cost of doing business and it barely hurts them at all – definitely not the case for a small local business.
However as for the economy… The economic indicators are the best they have ever been but if you don’t have stock then the stock market highs mean nothing to you – 50% of Americans have no stock. Trump’s “tax cuts” resulted in big tax increases for many Californians ( admittedly probably not ones breaking into businesses). And housing costs are through the roof in the Bay Area so finding somewhere to live is harder and harder hence the explosion in homelessness, I’m sure drug addiction is up just like in the rest of the country. As of the end of 2017 there were 39.7 million Americans living in poverty. 70% of countries worldwide have better income equality than the US. So don’t believe everything about what economic indicators tell you.
Cecile Dominique says
July 29, 2019 at 12:20 amAs a 15+ years resident of Glen Park and native San Franciscan, these merchants are our friends! The thieves broke and entered private property and stole from the merchants, damaged their businesses- stealing their expensive registers and the cash in them. Mr. Park of Buddies was stabbed and left for dead a few years ago; hospitalized for weeks in order to recover. He is lucky to be alive. Today a smashed window and stolen cash register, tomorrow a robbery with one of the merchants stabbed, shot or killed?
Of course more police presence will be helpful for the neighborhood !!!
Unfortunately, the Glen Park Merchants may need to put in costly security cameras in order to keep their employees and their property safe from theives. Sadly, as a result, local neighborhood merchant may need to raise their prices to cover greater personal security to their businesses and employees.
With the lack of police presence suggested in this reply, let’s just add soaring merchant prices to the over inflated home prices too?
Keep Glen Park Merchants and their employees and property safe !!!
yy says
July 29, 2019 at 12:58 pmAgreed, Joan
JB says
July 29, 2019 at 10:31 pmAbsolutely agree!
How about the fact that people wake up early everyday to go to work… put in hours and hours of blood sweat and tears into smacking their business thrive… only to have their property damaged and stolen. How about… those thieves didn’t put in ANY work to build that business and don’t have ANY right to take anything that doesn’t belong to them.
Furthermore… we ask for more police presence… yet… in our wonderful city.. even when these thieves are apprehended… they often get off without paying a harsh sentence. There is absolutely no fear or respect for the law. People steal, sell drugs and destroy property ALL over this city with little to no repercussions.
Kathy Keller says
July 27, 2019 at 9:58 pmThe primary appeal I hear is to us as a community to support these businesses even more at this time to help defray the losses they have incurred and, more importantly, to demonstrate that we, as members of the Glen Park Village, value their presence in our community.
gilly youner says
July 28, 2019 at 6:52 amCautious about what surveillance systems are promoted and added, particularly after a spate of robberies. Amazon will own our society even more than it already does using data from their Ring cams, as we continue to let them have free reign https://www.digitaltrends.com/news/amazon-ring-partnership-police/
Sapphire says
July 28, 2019 at 10:18 pmSad. This peacefully neighborhood is gone.
I live and work in this neighborhood. I believe most of the criminals come from out of town by taking Bart to our neighborhood. I see young teenagers jumped in and out of the trains very frequently. Please talk to the Department of transportation to enforce the tickets paying system. If they have to pay, they will be unlikely to come.
Glen Park Association Blog Editors says
July 29, 2019 at 12:25 amThe GPA regrets the posting of a number of offensive comments in this thread. They have been removed. People commenting on the blog must keep those comments respectful. Comments that veer off the topic of the post into invective will not be approved.
Kim Northrop says
July 29, 2019 at 10:49 amMaybe more neighborhood cameras can be installed? Did any of the businesses have alarms or cameras?
To whomever commented they came on BART? Really?
Sapphire says
July 29, 2019 at 10:26 pmLast time five of them robbed our customers infront of at least dozen of others customers , ran to Glen Park Bart station, jumped over the security gate into the train headed to Richmond . Police didn’t come until almost 2 hours later.