A popular Oakland restaurant has become the latest target for burglars.
What makes it worse, it happened during Oakland's restaurant week when the business expects hundreds of people to come through.
Everett and Jones has been serving up barbeque for 50 years and until now, has avoided being a target of break-ins. Now, boarded up windows show the spot where a thief broke into the building on Broadway around 3:30 a.m.
“Our office was ransacked, they took some money out of the office, they tore up a lot of stuff inside the office,” said Dorcia White, managing member of Everett and Jones.
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She runs the business with her sisters. Security footage shows the suspect walking through the restaurant with a saw. White says he walked straight into their office and tried to use it to break into one of their safes. When that didn’t work, he stole a smaller safe getting away with thousands of dollars.
“The restaurant industry has struggled tremendously, the cost of goods is high, labor is up and every penny has a name on it in this business, so it is disheartening,” said White.
The thief was in and out within minutes, leaving before Oakland police got on scene. Another burglary was reported 30 minutes before on Embarcadero and OPD suspects a saw was used in that case too and are investigating if they are related.
Local
The break-ins come during Oakland's restaurant week, a time designed to support local restaurants who have struggled to recover from the pandemic.
“It's unfortunate what’s happening,” said customer Keith Johnson. “Crimes everywhere nowadays.”
“It is a systemic problem, I have to carry my bag with me, I can't leave anything in my car,” said customer Mark Switze. “It’s a limiting factor of wanting to come visit.”
“One person won't stop what we want to do,” said White.
And with that declaration, the barbecue is still fired up. White says they’re already receiving support from the community. A place where their roots run deep
“We are a legacy business, we are third generation, we overcame a pandemic and we are still here. We are very proud of that, and we want to be in Oakland,” she said.
