During the holiday season, most Alameda residents were sipping hot chocolate, taking in the lights, and exchanging gifts. But for some stores in Alameda, the holidays brought break-ins and thefts targeting ATMs and cigarettes, leaving shattered windows and destroyed storefronts in their wake.
In mid-December, someone drove a car through the doors of the Lucky Supermarket in the Marina Village Shopping Center. A few days later, on December 19, there was another break-in at the store, using the same method. The thieves tried to steal the ATM and successfully made off with all the cigarettes in the supermarket. In response, the store has barricaded the entrances to prevent a similar break-in.
The Alameda Post spoke with an assistant manager, who declined to give his name and confirmed that the barricades were in response to the cars driving through the doors. He also told the Post that the store no longer sells cigarettes.
On January 3, would-be thieves broke into the Walgreens at 1916 Webster Street and tied a cable around the ATM. They tied the other end of the cable to a truck and attempted to make off with the ATM. They failed, and in the process destroyed the entrance to the store, which is now boarded up.
The manager at Walgreens, who declined to give his name or officially go on record because he is not an authorized corporate spokesperson, noted this was the second attempt to steal the ATM. “It’s bolted down,” he pointed out, emphasizing that both attempts failed.
When asked about shoplifting and crime at Walgreens, he stated that while the store has always had some shoplifters, there was a huge increase during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, which continues today. In his 35 years of working at various Walgreens stores, he noted that this level of crime is unprecedented. He also told the Post that he had transferred from a store in San Francisco to Alameda, hoping it would be safer, but that hasn’t been the case.
Stiizy, a cannabis dispensary at 1528 Webster Street, was also targeted. As of January 7, their storefront was boarded up from a December 30 break in. A security guard on duty told the Post that the thieves tried to steal the ATM in the lobby. Surprisingly, no attempt was made to steal any of the marijuana or cannabis products at the store. He did acknowledge that this was possibly because the police showed up, “in, like, a minute.” The security guard said that he couldn’t recall the last time Stiizy had a break-in or theft. “I think it happened once, but before I started working here.
Ulta Beauty at South Shore Center was broken into in early January as well. Store employees were not authorized to speak to the press about what happened and could not say what was taken, but many of the shelves holding name brand perfume were conspicuously empty and a closer look revealed broken glass in some of the doors’ remaining hinges. A store employee did confirm that a car had driven through the doors.
A few doors down from the Lucky store, the Tobacco Superstore in the Marina Village Shopping Center also has a boarded up storefront. An employee at the store said that they had been broken into five times in 2024. The first time was a group of people wearing surgical masks who came into the store when it was open and grabbed $3,000 worth of cigarettes. The second and third time, the thieves cut locks and chains off the door, making off with over $10,000 in cigarettes. The fourth time they used a chain pulled by a truck to open the door. And the fifth time, they used a car to smash through the front of the store.
360 Degrees Gourmet Burritos, also in the Marina Village Shopping Center, experienced a break-in and theft of the cash in their register on December 28. They closed temporarily for repairs and were open again as of Monday January 6. The cashier who was working the Monday morning shift said that in the 35 years the burrito shop had been open at Marina Village, this was the first time someone had broken into the store.
Both the assistant manager at the Lucky store and the employee at the Tobacco Superstore noted an uptick in thefts since the pandemic and lamented the lackluster police response. Both declined to give their names when speaking to the Post.
“It took two hours for the police to show up” at Lucky, the assistant manager said. The employee at the Tobacco Superstore blamed the small size of the Alameda Police Department (APD). Both employees assumed, without evidence, that the perpetrators came from outside Alameda and felt that their stores’ proximity to the Posey and Webster tubes was a liability because it enabled a quick getaway off the island.
Sue Chong, owner and manager of the Supercuts at Marina Village, echoed similar sentiments. Chong has seen nearby businesses getting their windows busted and drivers doing burnouts in parking lots, and has called for APD to step up patrols, particularly during certain hours of the day.
“[The perpetrators] don’t do it in the daytime, they do it at night when no one is around,” Chong explained. “The police need to patrol at night.”
The manager at Walgreens blamed “California laws and policies” for the increase in shoplifting and told the Post that while they do have private security guards, they are not allowed to physically lay hands on suspects or block them from leaving the store. When asked if that Walgreens location will remain open despite the ongoing daily thefts, he said he wasn’t sure and that it was a corporate decision.
Jennifer Shelton, Director of Public Relations and Government Affairs for The Save Mart Companies, which owns and operates stores under the Lucky, Save Mart, and FoodMaxx brands, told the Post that “with the passage of Proposition 36 and the Retail Theft Reduction Act, we look forward to seeing an improvement in the number of incidents in every community throughout the state.”
Supported by more than two-thirds of California voters in the November 2024 election, Proposition 36 imposes harsher penalties and reclassifies certain theft and drug crimes as felonies, partially reversing a different initiative approved in 2014 that was intended to reduce prison populations.
With businesses sweeping up broken glass and residents unnerved by the string of robberies, APD Chief Nishant Joshi did not say whether these incidents are connected. However, he also expressed optimism that changes in state law would further reduce crime rates in Alameda, which have fallen by 40% in the last year. Furthermore, APD’s “patrol division will also be fully staffed beginning next week, with at least 8 to 13 officers on duty during peak hours,” Joshi said in a statement to the Post.
“I understand that concerns about crime are on the minds of many of our residents and businesses,” added Joshi, “and [I] encourage you to attend an upcoming beat meeting to learn more about what’s happening and crime prevention efforts.”
Jean Chen is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact her via [email protected]. Her writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Jean-Chen.
Ken Der is a contributing writer for the Alameda Post. Contact him via [email protected]. His writing is collected at AlamedaPost.com/Ken-Der.
