San Bernardino arcade ransacked and burglarized for thousands of dollars on Thanksgiving, owner says
The owner of a San Bernardino arcade says that a group of thieves spent multiple days, including Thanksgiving, ransacking his business stealing valuable equipment.
Will Luna opened the Extraordinaire Arcade two years ago, and in just two days his beloved business was hit for thousands of dollars.
"I feel violated. Angry as hell, all of this stuff going on at once," Luna said.
He says that the burglars made off with nearly $16,000 in stolen property, including several PlayStation 5 consoles, cameras, television gaming monitors, a cash register and even an entire arcade game.
"It's worth about three grand," he said, referring to the X-Men game that was taken. "The entire machine was gone. It's about 500 pounds, I couldn't believe they took that machine out of here."
Though the thieves also made off with his security system, Luna says another camera in the area caught them in the act as they lugged the machine out of his business.
A different photo shows some of the suspected thieves entering a car just outside of a business next door to the arcade, which Luna says they also tried to break into.
Luna says that he might know who hit the arcade based on the video and photo evidence, which he believes point towards the nearby homeless encampment.
"I'm watching the videos and I see the same swag, the same walk," he recalled. "I think, 'That's such and such, that's such and such,' and, 'I can't believe he did that, as much as I looked out for him.'"
He says that he was even able to recover some of his stolen things from the encampment.
"I found my stuff over there," he said. "I found computer boards, worth $500. Snacks and drinks I sell, that was over there. The bags I put my popcorn in, that was over there."
Despite the crime, and the fact that it took him years to collect the consoles and arcade games, Luna says it'll just take him a few days to get things back up and running.
"There's really nothing out here family oriented for them to do. I'm one of the few that provide that for them, and people love this place," he said.
He expects to be fully reopened by Wednesday.
