Well, this is a strange one. Late Monday evening an unidentified man broke into a Mission District fabric store and proceeded to trash the place before setting an interior bathroom ablaze.
The store, Sal Beressi Fabrics, is located on Bryant Street near the 101 overpass, and has been burglarized prior to Monday's incident, but the business co-owner says this is first time someone has gone out of their way to damage the store.
“[The man] ripped the door, smashed the toilet and sink, and tore this place to pieces,” Haim Beressi told Mission Local. “This guy seemed to clearly have some drug issues.”
Surveillance cam footage shows the man climbing atop a truck before disappearing into a second story window. Roughly an hour and twenty minutes later, the video depicts the alleged arsonist exiting the building and casually jogging away from the scene.
The store's other co-owner, Heather Kilpack, further detailed the destruction to Mission Local, saying he ripped cabinets off of walls and destroyed interior artwork.
“[The] neighborhood has just gotten so crazy,” ventured Kilpack, who also noted the proximity of homeless encampments to the store. "I harbor no ill will towards anyone who’s homeless, they’re doing everything they can to get their lives together. But the fire was potentially dangerous. He was just out of his mind."
The San Francisco Fire Department responded to the scene and managed to extinguish the fire before it spread throughout the store. However, it still did an estimated $15,000 in damage. What's more, Kilpack doesn't yet know if the fabrics are smoke damaged.
"I'm not going to know if these are sellable or if it’s a huge loss,” she explained to the publication. "It hard enough to own a business in this city. You spend 11-12 years of your life working as hard as you can, all my money is in this store.”
No one has been arrested in connection with the break in or fire. The surveillance camera video, via Mission Local, can be watched below.
Related: Man Arrested For Setting Early Morning String Of Fires In The Mission
