Market Street restaurateur stays strong despite break-ins
While San Francisco city officials say property crime is down, the break ins still happening at some local businesses are producing plenty of frustration for owners, like the proprietor of a Market Street restaurant that just got hit.
Kevin Lieu, owner of GAI Chicken & Rice, described the incident: "As you can see here, they shattered the entire window, and once the window was broken, they just came straight in."
The Lieu family has owned GAI Chicken & Rice, a Thai restaurant situated on the corner of Market and Sixth Street, since 2021. Unfortunately, this marks the sixth break-in within less than a year.
"They went directly to the cash register area, and they took all the tablets that we use for our delivery business like Doordash, Uber Eats, and Grubhubs… they took phones, they even took food… they made a big mess," Lieu explained.
The incident was captured by one of several security cameras Kevin recently installed to safeguard his business.
"It just hurts because it's hard doing business already, especially in the restaurant industry… margins are really slim, and the whole family puts work into it, and having it just taken away in a ten-minute job like that is horrible," Lieu added.
Given that this is not the first time GAI has been broken into, Kevin explained the difficulty of coming up with at least $2,000 to replace the windows so frequently.
"The one that's completely broken, it's just glass… shattered, but there's special ones where they put like a piece of plastic so even though it breaks, it doesn't shatter, so at least it prevents them from coming in," Lieu said.
In addition to the break-in, the vandals left graffiti and acid that proved resistant to cleaning attempts.
Though Kevin acknowledged that other businesses in the area are going through similar experiences, he's still hopeful.
"It's tough, but I think we believe in this city. This is where we decided to make home, and it's been very welcoming in other ways ... we believe in change, and if we all come together and speak up… let's talk to our supervisors, let's get the right people … it's San Francisco, we can't just let it go."