Burglars hit several businesses in Oakland's Little Saigon neighborhood
OAKLAND -- Police are looking for a group of thieves responsible for breaking into a number of businesses in the city's Little Saigon neighborhood early Monday morning.
Oakland police said the multiple burglaries happened on the 800 block of International Boulevard just after 4:30 a.m. on Monday. Officers who responded to an alarm activation at Oakland International Plaza found several businesses in the area had been burglarized and their front windows broken.
A hair salon and coin laundromat were among the businesses burglarized as shown in a citizen's video posted on Facebook. It appears not to be the first time the strip mall was hit, as the man recording the video is heard saying "they did it again."
The video also includes surveillance footage showing at least eight or nine suspects wearing masks and hoodies arriving at the strip mall in three vehicles - a light-colored, older model Volvo sedan, a dark older model Porsche SUV, and an older white Nissan sedan.
"Around here, it's scary, it's not safe," said the hair salon owner, who didn't want to be identified.
She told KPIX 5 she used to stay open until 9:00 p.m., but now she goes home before sundown because she doesn't feel safe and she's lost business.
"It's very sad," she said. "Business is slow. No more customers come here."
Peter Tang, the owner of International Plaza, says multiple tenants are frustrated and upset because of the crimes that keep happening there. He says he's troubled by the police response time.
"We've called them, but their response is so late," he said. "I'm going to try to put more security, a camera, and I plan to bring more security over here. That's all I can do."
During a news conference on Tuesday after a string of violent crimes in Oakland, OPD Deputy Chief James Beere said the department is dealing with a staffing shortage.
"We're authorized 726 officers. Currently, our staffing is at 681. I would hope that we could be fully staffed as soon as possible," he said.
He says the department is working to address the staffing issues.
"We're looking at different avenues for deployment of officers to include overtime assignments, but that can only carry you so far," he said. "I will say, we have multiple academies going through right now. One is set to graduate in October, so that's a bright light that we're really looking forward to the help from those officers graduating from the academy."
It was not clear how many businesses were hit and what was taken. Oakland police asked anyone with information about the burglaries to the department's Burglary Unit at (510) 238-3951.
The crime spree is the latest to hit the Little Saigon neighborhood, which has also seen shootings that killed an elderly Asian woman and an Uber driver sitting in his car.
