A group of four to six suspects, reportedly with guns, pulled another Union Square heist at the Gucci store at Stockton Street and Maiden Lane Monday, and the suspects are still at large after police lost them in a chase.
Any robbery of a high-end retail store in San Francisco’s Union Square will inevitably draw comparisons to the November 2021 smash-and-grab spree. And the robbery of the Union Square Gucci store in particular bring to mind a wild 2017 incident where thieves drove a car through the storefront to steal thousands of dollars of Gucci handbags. A Monday afternoon armed robbery of that Gucci store will probably not have the same notoriety, but as NBC Bay Area reports, customers and staff were quite shaken because the suspects were reportedly armed. That station also reports that the suspects, who are still at large, "may be linked to at least one more robbery."
San Francisco police are searching for suspects in the armed robbery of the Gucci store near Union Square, and they say the thieves may be linked to at least one more robbery. https://t.co/Fha9GM7aMA
— NBC Bay Area (@nbcbayarea) July 11, 2023
KGO’s Dion Lim adds in the tweet below that the burglars made off with “about $48,000 in product from the Gucci store,” and pegs the time of the robbery at 3:40 p.m. Monday.
Multiple sources tell me multiple suspects made off w/about $48,000 in product from the Gucci store in San Francisco around 3:40pm today.
— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) July 11, 2023
SFPD and CHP confirm a chase ensued. The vehicle was used in a previous armed robber & was lost on the peninsula. No arrests yet. 🧵⬇️ pic.twitter.com/pZjA38yRHw
NBC Bay Area spoke to an unidentified witness, who said four to six men pulled the heist, and added that at least one of them was armed.
“I just couldn’t believe what I was looking at,” the anonymous witness told that station. “They were pulling things off the shelves and running back and forth, and I saw a gun in the waist, and that really scared me, and at the time, my daughter had just been escorted to the basement to use the bathroom.”
The daughter, and all customers and staff, are thankfully safe and unharmed. Though that witness and a store associate were both rattled and in tears after the robbery.
SFPD told NBC Bay Area in a statement that the getaway vehicle had been used in another robbery, though it is unclear when or where that robbery was. Police and California Highway Patrol cars reportedly chased the vehicle, but lost it somewhere along the Peninsula.
If you have any information on this incident, you are asked to call the SFPD tip line at 415-575-4444 or text a tip to TIP411 and begin the text message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous.
Related: Driver Smashes Into Union Square Gucci Store, Reportedly Raids It For Purses [SFist]
Image: K.T. via Yelp