Latest vehicle theft attempt at El Cerrito car dealership caught on camera
An East Bay business owner says he's fed up with criminals targeting his car dealership after a recent incident that was caught on surveillance camera video.
Danny Sun is the owner of EKE Motorsports on San Pablo Avenue. His business sits right on the border between Richmond and El Cerrito. Sun says for the second time, a young person tried to steal a car from his lot over the weekend.
The incident happened Friday night into Saturday morning. In the video, a man with a laptop walks up to a car and does some kind of programming to open the door of one of the used cars on the lot. When the would-be thief isn't able to start the car, he smashes the window of the dealership office with a pipe, then heads inside, presumably to find the keys.
"There's no consequences, right? If they get arrested, what's going to happen? Slap their hand and they let them go," said Sun.
This isn't the first time something like this has happened at EKE. Sun says in 2021, an employee was carjacked by a man who originally said he wanted to test drive the car. The employee initially stood in front of the car to keep the driver from leaving the lot. But as the vehicle continued to move, the worker was thrown up on the hood as the car jacker drove away, almost crushing the employee under the tires.
"Either a thief, a bad guy is going to get hurt or we get hurt, because this is getting crazier and crazier," said Sun.
He blames the crime issues on a lack of responsiveness from the Richmond Police Department. Even though his dealership's address is in El Cerrito, it falls under the jurisdiction of Richmond police. Sun says if something doesn't change soon, he's going to have to move.
"I'm totally frustrated. You're kidding me. Again? Again!?? When this happened, I actually wanted to move. I wanted to move to a different location. This is like the straw that broke the camel's back," he said.
Richmond Police provided this statement to KPIX 5:
"Officers responded to an alarm activation at 10245 San Pablo Ave [the address of EKE Motorsports] and located a broken window on the business. Officers attempted to locate a business owner or responsible party to respond to the business but could not locate anyone. At the time of this email, no one from the business has contacted RPD to report a break-in or confirm if anything was stolen."
In response to the owner's statement about the Richmond Police Department being understaffed, the statement went on to say, "We currently have numerous open vacancies and are actively hiring. Although we have a shortage of officers as an organization, we have established minimal staffing levels that ensure we always have nine officers on duty to ensure the safety needs of our community are met. On that note, regardless of the total number of officers employed by the department, our minimum staffing levels have remained the same."