SACRAMENTO — One Sacramento business feels targeted after being broken into five times in the past two months, and a nearby business was hit the same night this weekend.
The latest break-ins happened this past weekend on back-to-back nights at the Togos and Baskin Robbins on Natomas Crossing Drive, just off Truxel Road.
“As a general manager of a business, it’s scary because you don’t know what they are capable of,” said Kendra Parsons who is the general manager of Togos and Baskin Robbins. “These last few times, they only have gotten away with change in the drawer. So, under $20.”
Parsons does not understand why the suspects would come back twice and clarified that they have not been stealing any food. Surveillance video from inside the shop instead shows two suspects going behind the counter and ripping out the registers.
The glass windows that they shattered were fixed over the weekend with business back to usual, but Sacramento police have not caught anyone.
“It’s a waiting game, but then, during the waiting game, we continue to get broken into,” Parsons said.
Max Muscle Nutrition in the same Natomas shopping center got hit by thieves the same night this weekend.
“It’s already a struggle out there, so things like this happening just sets you back even more,” said Cody Rayburn, co-owner of the nutrition shop.
The owners of Max Nutrition estimate that thieves got away with anywhere from $20,000 to $30,000 in stolen items and damages.
“It started at like 3:20 in the morning and they went all the way until 5 a.m., back and forth between my shop and Togos from 3-5 a.m., just making runs,” said Marcie Sabey, co-owner of the nutrition shop.
Sabey showed me the two suspects on a neighboring business’ security video. That business did not want to share the video with CBS13 at the time. However, at one point in the video, a security vehicle can be seen driving into the lot but the driver did not appear to notice what was happening.
“As of right now, I don’t feel like there’s a lot of consequences for the people who are breaking in here,” Parsons said.
That is what Proposition 36 on the California ballot hopes to change. It is also known as the Homeless, Drug Addiction and Theft Reduction Act, and it will create harsher penalties than just misdemeanors for serial retail theft offenders.
“This returns us to a level of common sense in our policy in California,” said Sacramento County Assemblyman Josh Hoover for District 7, who supports the proposition.
Hoover said that if you commit the crime more than twice, you’ll face more time, and law enforcement will also be able to add up the dollar amount of stolen items if someone breaks into multiple places.
He said opponents of the bipartisan bill think it may increase incarceration.
The Natomas businesses are feeling vulnerable and are worried the suspects will strike again.
“It makes you worried for what the future is going to hold,” Sabey said. “Is it going to keep happening? How many times are we going to have to replace these products and the glass?”
Sacramento police said it is investigating the burglary that happened at the Togos and Baskin Robbins in August. It also received the reports from this weekend, but those cases have not been assigned to detectives yet.