'We have to worry every night going home. This is the not the San Francisco we know,' says the owner of Smoke Signals, after a cash savings, $20,000 in products, and even the tip jar for the shop dog, Pebbles, were stolen.
SAN FRANCISCO -- Under attack and in despair -- That's how at least one small business owner in San Francisco feels after a brazen robbery involving a power saw. This crime is eerily similar to another robbery, involving a tool we've never seen used in a crime before.
Owner of Smoke Signals magazine shop, Fadi Berbery, is somewhat of a San Francisco institution. Despite the rise in online publications, customers stream in and out of his store all day long.But what happened the morning of Sunday, February 20, was a first -- A break-in and robbery of epic proportions.Berbery shows surveillance video on his phone, and points to how a circular saw was used to slice open heavy duty iron gates."Having two iron gates. Industrial locks.
Within a flash, about $20,000 in tobacco products, his emergency cash savings and even a tip jar for Pebbles the Shih Tzu, was stolen. "I was like where are we? What country are we? I believe I'm not the only one suffering from this," Berbery said. He's not. Just one neighborhood away, a small, independently-owned liquor store that requested not to be identified, also had a brazen break-in using a power saw. The way they concealed their crime made us do a double-take.