Two small businesses on the same block in San Francisco’s Castro District were turned into crime scenes Tuesday. One by burglars, the other by a gunman, and both crimes caught on camera.
Surveillance video at MX3 Fitness on Market Street shows the moment the window was shot out by someone in a passing car, just before 2 a.m. A few seconds later, the shattered window falls to the floor.
“Two cars chasing each other, another car following closely behind that second car goes by, you hear a pop and then the window breaks,” said Dave Karraker, MX3 Fitness co-owner.
It is unknown if the people in those cars were shooting at this business or at each other.
MX3 Fitness has been in the news before. A massive New Years Eve storm flooded the place, and shut it down for weeks.
This time, Karraker hopes to recoup some of his losses with help from a city storefront vandalism grant.
“What's ironic about that, I helped to write that grant as part of the Castro Merchants Association. We were having all the vandalism problems here in the Castro,” he said.
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Three hours after that, and just three stores away, burglars broke into barber shop Healing Cuts SF.
“These were professional people because in order to go through that door, you need to be professional,” said Ismael De Luna, owner of Healing Cuts.
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A total of $25,000-worth of tools were gone. The cash register was turned upside down and the front door was damaged.
“It's like a punch because we are trying to survive in coming back from COVID and everything,” said De Luna. “And we’re still struggling and just when we’re trying to get our head up where we can breathe for air and someone else comes and sits on top of you. It’s discouraging.”
NBC Bay Area reached out after business hours to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman who represents the Castro District, but did not hear back.
Karraker and De Luna have not heard from their fellow business people that there’s a sudden rash of crime in the Castro. It could be just a rough coincidence they hope does not happen again.
