You may have heard the quote, "Anything can be a weapon, if the man or woman who holds it has the nerve and will to make it so."
In San Francisco, a burglar is proving that anything can also be an instrument of burglary. Sunday morning, surveillance video captured a man slicing through the iron gates of one of the city's last remaining newsstands with a circular saw. He makes it through two gates in total, industrial locks, and bars on the entry door.
Once inside the 27-year-old magazine and smoke shop called Smoke Signals, the burglar rounded up about $20,000 worth of tobacco products and emergency cash savings held in the store, as well as cash from a tip jar meant to go toward a dog.
Fadi Berbery, the owner of Smoke Signals at Polk Street and Bonita Street, told ABC7 News he feels "under attack and in despair."
He isn't the only one — criminals have been using saws to break into stores all over the Bay.
Nearby Smoke Signals, a locally-owned liquor store recently had a break-in as well. The implement of choice? Another power saw. It took two people about a half hour to get through the lock and gate with the saw, but they eventually made it through, then made off with $5,000 in cigarettes. San Francisco Police say they aren't able to determine yet whether that break-in and the one at Smoke Signals are related.
Just a few days earlier, a group of thieves broke in to an Oakland cannabis dispensary using the rear end of an SUV as a battering ram, and stole $21,000 worth of product.
Back at the newsstand, Berbery says it took San Francisco police almost an entire shift — nearly eight hours — to show up after he called for help.
"It's so frustrating because they are so daring to do these things," Berbery tells ABC 7. "Because they know the punishment is nothing compared to the loot they're going to walk out with."
Smoke Signals has an insurance policy that will help with the damage and losses, but it won't cover the stolen emergency cash. The store now has a GoFundMe set up, which you can find here.
Photo: Yelp
