LAFAYETTE, CALIFORNIA – There’s way too many boarded up shopfronts around the 925 these days.
Time was a big break-in at a local business would be a huge story. These days, though, it feels like we’re reporting on scary break-ins almost every week.
It feels like the trend started with “ram raids” on the ATMs at CVS in Lafayette and Orinda earlier this year.
Then, thieves seem to have transitioned to hitting every smaller, more local spots.
The front door of Panache Cafe in Lafayette was smashed this month, and a safe was stolen while the owner hid inside, clutching a baseball bat and hoping the thieves didn’t find her.
Great Wall was apparently hit too on the same day.
And then in Walnut Creek, multiple shops were burglarized, apparently in a single morning. I stopped by and saw several boarded up even days later–although most, including Panache, quickly reopen following breakins.
How could they not? Existing as a small restaurant or shop in the 925 is hard enough, with rents easily over $10k per month and often far more. Even a single lost day of business can be devastating.
Yet this puts local business owners in a tough spot. Can they safely come in early or stay late to operate their business, or is that putting their own safety at risk?
It feels like the trend hit a new low when thieves broke into Zoonie’s, a candy store in Lafayette, and stole a safe.
It also begs the question: how do these thieves happen to know which stores have safes inside? Are they just targeting every cash business they can think of? Or are they someone finding out the most lucrative targets?
With all these “blitz” style burglaries–where a large crew breaks in and quickly ransacks a store–it feels like it’s only a matter of time until someone gets hurt.
Our local law enforcement is working really hard to counter the trend. It’s tough, though, because many of the crews robbing local stores seem to come from elsewhere in the Bay Area–this isn’t homegrown crime.
That means catching them requires coordinating across multiple geographies and with many different police agencies. It happens, but takes time.
Some local PDs are turning to tech to counter the trend. Concord is planning to spend north of half a million dollars on drones that can be “first on the scene” and pursue criminals from the air even if they abscond through the tunnel or slip onto BART.
With the busy holiday season, stores will be taking in even more cash, and thus becoming even more tempting targets. Let’s hope the increased foot traffic and enforcement quashes this trend and we can all have a quieter holiday season.
