The owner of a trendy restaurant in crime-ridden Oakland, California, says his establishment was burglarized for the seventh time in just four years on Wednesday.
Surveillance footage from Kitchen Story on College Avenue obtained by ABC 7 shows an unidentified robber already inside the restaurant on Wednesday morning, walking around tables and approaching a door in the back.
The suspect, wearing a dark hoodie and pants with a light strapped to his head, could then be seen attempting to open the door.
When he was ultimately unsuccessful, he fled the scene, the local news channel reports.
But restaurant owner Chaiporn Kitsadaviseksak says the door the man was trying to get through leads to an office, where he keeps cash and iPads.
A would-be burglar was caught on surveillance footage attempting to break into an office door at Kitchen Story in Oakland, California, on Wednesday morning.
Although the suspect left without stealing anything, Kitsadaviseksak said he left the front door smashed.
Broken glass could be seen around the frame, and the homeowner says it costs him thousands of dollars every time he has to repair the door.
He is now asking the police to patrol the area.
“You know, I’m really fed up with this, because when I call the police, no one can help me,” Kitsadaviseksak said.
“… I can file a complaint with the police, but I don’t have the option to do so. They just tell me I can do it online. What’s the point?”
DailyMail.com has contacted Oakland police about the matter.
The owner of the trendy restaurant says the incident marks the seventh robbery in just four years.
Although the suspect left without stealing anything, he left the front door smashed, with glass scattered around the frame.
But the police department in the Democratic-run city had previously admitted it had only 35 officers patrolling the city at any given time.
Oakland is a city of about 435,000 people, which means there is only one police officer on patrol for every 12,500 citizens at any given time.
The department has 705 officers, but the city only authorizes it to have 678. Miami, of similar size, has more than 1,100 sworn members of its police force and Long Beach, California, has 824 officers.
The Oakland Police Records Department also uses outdated software and a reporting management system that hasn’t been updated since 2006, resulting in woefully inaccurate crime statistics.
However, reports suggest that the city is in the grip of a crime wave.
Robberies with unspecified dangerous weapons rose 23 percent from last year, according to the The latest crime data shows…
Residential burglaries have also nearly doubled, from 24 reported at the same time last year to 46 reported so far in 2024, and burglaries at “unknown” locations have increased 152 percent.
Earlier this month, a female rapper and businesswoman known as Tan DaGod was also tragically murdered at the grand opening of her new beauty store.
Oakland police said another person was also shot but survived.
Oakland-based rapper Tan DaGod (pictured) was fatally shot while opening a new beauty store in the California city.
One person was seen sobbing on the ground as a friend comforted them, alongside a pile of red roses left by mourners following the Oakland shooting.
Residents say the city has always been plagued by crime, but reports have risen dramatically since the pandemic and are just beginning to decline.
But a survey by Koreatown’s Northgate Community Benefit District found that 94 percent of businesses were robbed and 92 percent didn’t bother to report it.
In one case, dozens of thieves were caught on camera looting a gas station of $22,000 worth of goods. after crashing a car into the glass doors.
It took the police nine hours to arrive at the scene.
This, some prominent Oakland residents say, is the core problem: Police can’t keep up, and victims and criminals alike know it.
A February report from the Juvenile and Criminal Justice Center found that only 1.5 percent of serious crimes were solved, including just 6.5 percent of violent crimes.
This happened even though the rest of California spent record amounts of money on policing and justice, and sent more accused criminals to prison than almost ever before.
Around 100 robbers looted a gas station in Oakland, California, in the middle of the night.
Former Police Chief LeRonne Armstrong, who was fired by Mayor Sheng Thao last year, blames City Hall for the downward spiral, saying officials deliberately diverted money from the police department.
Last year, Thao froze police hiring — despite the fact that the police force was and remains understaffed — and critics like Armstrong say the council is deliberately trying to reduce the role of the police without having enough replacements.
“There’s a sense of anarchy. A sense that we can do whatever we want, that there are no consequences, almost like in a video game,” he said. The free press.
“Our leaders don’t understand the tone.”
Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao faces a historic recall election in November amid anger over her failure to get the situation under control.
Armstrong said the problem was so obvious that offenders were coming to the city for “crime tourism.”
“Oakland’s freewheeling nature is now attracting criminals from outside the city, Armstrong told me, because they know they can get away with it,” the outlet wrote.
Tim Gardner of the Oakland Report had a similar view: ‘We have an incapacitated police force and a criminal population that is smart enough to recognize this, test it and realize they can do whatever they want.
“It’s 100 percent self-inflicted.”
Thao will do it now will face a historic recall election in November amid anger over his failure to get the situation under control.
The progressive Democratic lawmaker is the first mayor in city history to stand for recall, after a campaign to oust her garnered more than 40,000 signatures.
Critics say they are angry that she missed a chance to apply for a $15 million anti-shoplifting grant, fired Chief Armstrong “without cause” without naming a successor and lost the Oakland A’s baseball team.
The progressive district attorney for Alameda County, which includes Oakland, also faces a recall vote
Thao’s opponents blame his progressive policies for skyrocketing crime.
Among them was a bizarre proposal suggesting that life coaching could help address homicide and other crimes.
The plan was suggested as part of the city’s ceasefire plan, which had been fading away until Thao took office.
Also facing a recall effort in November is the progressive district attorney for Alameda County, which includes Oakland.
District Attorney Pamela Price has been blamed for policies that embolden criminals and prioritize their needs over those of crime victims.