Nine downtown Sacramento businesses burglarized in 24-hour spree
SACRAMENTO, Calif. —
Nine businesses in downtown Sacramento were burglarized within 24 hours earlier this week, leaving behind damage, stolen goods, and frustration among customers and business owners.
In the area, multiple businesses now have boarded-up doors or windows as a result of the break-ins.
“I hope we don’t see anything like this happen again any time soon,” said Katie Kemp, a customer.
The burglaries caused damage or theft at nine businesses, including BevMo, Stillwater Sciences, Joneck’s Wine Lounge and Bottle Shop, East Village Bookshop, and Locked Barrel. Police have not yet identified the other four businesses involved.
“It hurts my heart a little bit that we have all these stores and a lot of them honestly are mom-and-pop kind of places,” Kemp said. “And so having to go through this kind of a challenge and then also, I think the lack of information.”
Joneck’s owner Renee Jones said an alarm woke her early Wednesday. When she checked the live security feed on her phone, she realized someone was moving through her business.
“Sometimes we get false alarms,” Jones said. “No, there was somebody running in the space.”
Surveillance video shared with KCRA 3 shows a person breaking a window and entering the wine lounge around 4:35 a.m. The person, wearing primarily black clothing, a hood and a backpack, then moved behind the bar.
Jones said she called 911 and attempted to warn the person through her security camera’s microphone.
“I’m like, ‘Get out. I’m calling the police. Get out now. We are recording you,’” Jones said.
Jones said the person took a case containing camera equipment and a portable speaker system before riding away. She estimated the stolen property and damage would cost between $5,000 and $6,000.
East Village Bookshop said its surveillance footage showed a break-in happened at 4:28 a.m.
Bookstore employee Jalila Chehab said the person went directly to the cash register, forced it open and stuffed money into their pockets. She estimated that several hundred dollars were taken.
“We’re a small business, and the other business is a small business,” Chehab said. “Now we’re just going to have to fix the door and do all this stuff. It’s just sad.”
The business planned to remain closed until its damaged front door could be repaired.
“It hurts my heart a little bit that we have all these stores and a lot of them honestly are mom-and-pop kind of places,” Kemp said. “And so having to go through this kind of a challenge and then also, I think the lack of information.”
Business owners expressed frustration with what they described as a lack of communication from business advocacy organizations.
“It seems like between all of these partnerships, between the businesses, between law enforcement, between the city and the lack of transparency around what’s really happening here,” Kemp said.
Efforts to reach the Downtown Sacramento Partnership for comment were unsuccessful, and the Midtown Business Association stated it was unavailable to comment.
Police said there is no suspect information at this time.
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