"Smash and grab thieves," as Bay Area media are wont to call them, have hit Music Lovers Audio in San Francisco for the second time in a month. This time, at 4am on Wednesday, March 4, three thieves wearing bandanas or ski masks over their faces and either long hoodies or overcoats drove up in a red truck, smashed one of the store's windows, and tried to make off with as much they could.
Whether they're the same robbers who stole $20,000 in merchandise the first time around, let alone the same burglars who have pillaged AudioVision and Harmony Audio Video in San Francisco, and Audio High in Mountain View to the south, remains to be seen. If they are, they used a different truck than the one that smashed through the metal gates at AudioVision SF. (At least one neighboring resident reports his car window was smashed the same night, but that has become commonplace throughout the Bay Area.)
What is known for sure is that they avoided the window they smashed last time, which has since been reinforced with far stronger glass, and went for a more vulnerable entry point. The alarm system went off—Music Lovers had just installed a new security system the night before—but the robbers moved very fast.
Reached by phone, right when he was besieged by calls, Music Lovers' co-owner, Jae Wheeler, said he had no need to sensationalize the story. But he was acutely aware that many independent audio retailers have been hit recently in the Bay Area.
"Right now, we're in the middle of fortifying the store," he said. "Unfortunately, we have to put some heavy pipes across the windows. They tried to walk off with a Wilson Audio Sasha 2, but even three guys couldn't carry it quickly, so they gave up. In the first robbery, they grabbed a VTL 450 and dropped it. This time, it was an Ayre KX-R Twenty, but they dropped it as well before taking it.
"We have the serial numbers. If Audiogon ever advertises our stolen goods again, as they did with a Nagra preamp, and then fails to cooperate with us so we can tell the Police Department, I'm going to sue them."
CBS San Francisco reports that other recent robberies include San Francisco's Wells Fargo History Museum and the Patagonia store at Fisherman's Wharf. Both were hit by three burglars in ski masks. This writer found himself in the midst of a similar robbery in the Verizon store in Alameda, CA just a few months before we were priced out of the Bay Area, and relocated to the relative peace of Port Townsend, WA. In that little caper, three men wearing ski masks and sporting what looked like very real guns charged into the store, forcing everyone down, grabbed whatever they could (except my new iPhone), and marched us into the back of the store and told us to stay put while they fled. Three other Verizon stores in the Bay Area were hit the same week.
Audiophiles who suddenly discover great deals on damaged equipment on eBay, Audiogon, and the like would do the entire community a great favor by contacting the San Francisco Police Department.
