Three suspects broke into K&H Liquor Store at 501 Valencia St. early Sunday morning, and used a crowbar to drag the ATM out of the store, the owner said.
Officers responded to a burglary at 5:02 a.m. on Sunday. “Upon arrival, officers checked the building and the area for suspects, but did not locate any,” Officer Gonee Sepulveda, a spokesperson for San Francisco Police Department, wrote in an email.
Sepulveda said that no arrests have been made. After the alarm went off following the burglary, an employee who was nearby checked on the store and the suspects were already gone, the store co-owner John said.
“They were only here for, like, three minutes,” the owner said.
The ATM is used about 10 to 15 times daily, the owner said. He wasn’t sure how much money was in the machine, but he said the ATM company is filing an insurance claim.
The corner store has been around since 2010, the owner said, and this is the first time his ATM has been stolen. But this is not a first in the neighborhood in recent months.
Last month, thieves dragged an ATM out of the Walgreens at 23rd and Mission streets; a few weeks before that, three suspects broke into Clooney’s Pub and made off with an ATM. At 4:17 a.m. on Oct. 10, burglars stole the ATM and all the cigarettes from the Jumpstart Deli and Grocery at Guerrero and 24th streets.
K&H will reinforce the door, and may even chain the ATM down. The store’s owner has heard that that tactic successfully prevented a nearby bar’s ATM from being stolen. Even so, he has some concerns.
“I’m kind of scared of putting up a new one, because I know it will be targeted,” he said.
This remains an active and ongoing investigation. Anyone with information is asked to contact the SFPD at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the message with SFPD. You may remain anonymous.
I’m a broken record on this, but so long as SFPD persists in its “no patrolling, only responding to calls” policy, there’s no reason for criminals not to take their shots. To inhibit crime (of all kinds, small and large), there needs to be the *possibility* that a patrol car may cruise by.
Who cares? San Francisco has a fairly low murder rate, so everything is really OK. Reporting this kind of story is just trumped up sensationalism…
Defund the police