A longtime San Diego bike shop is struggling to recover after its latest burglary \u2014 a break-in the owner says cost thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise and damages just days before the holiday shopping rush.<\/p>\n
The shop\u2019s owner Moe Karimi says this is not the first time thieves have targeted his business, despite repeated efforts to improve security.<\/p>\n
The small business has installed surveillance cameras, reinforced doors and even upgraded to shatter-resistant windows. Still, the owner says it hasn\u2019t been enough to stop criminals from breaking in.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very upsetting thing that you wake up at four o\u2019clock in the morning and come up here and face the broken door and window,\u201d said Karimi. \u201cYou walk in and see half the store is empty.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karimi says repeated burglaries have taken a growing toll on his business over the years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has always progressively gotten worse and worse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Surveillance footage from the most recent break-in shows multiple suspects inside the shop. Karimi says dozens of bikes were stolen \u2014 many of them high-end models with hefty price tags.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not just the money that was lost \u2014 the physical money,\u201d Karimi explained. \u201cI lost a lot of money because of not selling.\u201d<\/p>\n
The timing, he says, couldn\u2019t be worse.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the holiday season, when there\u2019s so much product taken out of your store, your sales drop because you don\u2019t have the products,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it takes time to replace that.\u201d<\/p>\n
Karimi opened the bike shop in 1999 and says he\u2019s made it a priority to stay proactive when it comes to security.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery year I add some kind of security feature. I reinforce the doors and gates,\u201d he said. \u201cBut still, if they want to get in, nothing stops them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, the repeated break-ins have left him feeling uncertain about the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cI feel very insecure in my business \u2014 that every day something can happen,\u201d Karimi said. \u201cIt seems to me that nobody cares at the street level what happens in San Diego. It\u2019s terrible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The San Diego Police Department says it is still investigating the burglary.<\/p>\n
In a statement, police said in part: <\/p>\n
\u201cShortly after 4:00 a.m., multiple suspects forcibly entered the business and stole property before fleeing the area. No injuries were reported, and no arrests have been made at this time.<\/p>\n
The business owner reported an estimated loss of approximately $15,000 in stolen property. The exact inventory and total loss remain under review.<\/p>\n
Detectives are actively reviewing surveillance footage and working with partner agencies as part of the ongoing investigation.<\/p>\n
Anyone with information related to this incident is urged to contact San Diego Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477. Tipsters may remain anonymous and may be eligible for a cash reward.
Detectives are actively reviewing surveillance footage and working with partner agencies as part of the ongoing investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A longtime San Diego bike shop is struggling to recover after its latest burglary \u2014 a break-in the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":462842,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5134],"tags":[5229,210993,1582,276,4219,7236,3549,22509,7264,8156,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-462841","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bike-shop","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-crime","13":"tag-downtown","14":"tag-san-diego","15":"tag-san-diego-police-department","16":"tag-sandiego","17":"tag-theft","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-united-states-of-america","20":"tag-unitedstates","21":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","22":"tag-us","23":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115759365919076936","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=462841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}