Four people were arrested Tuesday for allegedly burglarizing a convenience store in San Francisco's Richmond District, according to police.
At about 9:39 p.m., officers were sent to a burglary in progress at a store in the 1600 block of Balboa Street. Upon arrival, police could see significant property damage to the business, but no sign of any suspects.
The incident, which was caught on the store's surveillance camera, showed a thief walking inside the store following the crash and moments after that, the suspect walked out with some lottery tickets in hand.
Store owner Nick Lawson said the thieves just took the lottery tickets. He arrived at his store on Tuesday night to find a huge mess and thousands of dollars of work needed. A year ago, a nearly identical crime netted thieves $10,000 in tickets. Since then, Lawson said he has hardened his lottery ticket area and this time, he lost only about $350 in tickets
Detectives gathered evidence at the scene, including information about how many suspects were involved and what vehicles they used. A short time later, plainclothes officers spotted the suspect vehicles near eastbound Interstate 80 at Octavia Boulevard and continued surveillance as the vehicles traveled to Oakland, according to police.
The suspect vehicle was disabled near Eighth and Center streets in Oakland. The occupants, later identified as 27-year-old Enrique Johnson-Antunez of Emeryville and 33-year-old Valerie Brinkmann of Newark, were taken into custody.
Two additional suspects, identified as Esteban Vasquez Lara of Oakland and Elena Carlson, were taken into custody by the Oakland Police Department as they allegedly attempted to cash in stolen lottery tickets at a business in the area of 14th and Adeline streets.
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All four suspects were booked at the San Francisco County Jail on suspicion of conspiracy to commit a felony, vehicle theft, possession of burglary tools, buying or receiving a stolen vehicle, vandalism, and vehicle registration fraud.
Antunez was also booked for violating his parole. Carlson was booked on suspicion of burglary in the second degree and possession of drug paraphernalia and methamphetamine.
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