A group of businesses in San Jose’s Willow Glen neighborhood say they have been hit by thieves in recent months.
The most recent incident happened early Thursday morning, when thieves shattered the glass window of the Bay Area Phone Doctor store, located in the 1200 block of Lincoln Avenue.
According to Bay Area Phone Doctor owner Jamie Sizelove, the thieves broke in and ransacked the small business for the second time in six weeks.
“Extremely frustrating. You don’t know if you’re going to come back to work and it’s going to be robbed or not,” he said.
Sizelove said he scanned over his surveillance video and he thinks it's the same men who keep coming back.
“There’s a very large gentleman that seems to take up the whole doorway, and there’s a short gentleman and he seems to be the ringleader of the deal,” he said.
Sizelove added that he’s not even done dealing with insurance from the first crime, when 25 phones were stolen. He thinks the suspects came back for more overnight but there was nothing there.
“There’s a lot of crime going on right now. A lot of businesses getting broken into, from Round Table down to the diamond store,” Sizelove said.
Steve Hopper with the Goosetown Lounge told NBC Bay Area Thursday that his business was also hit and it had its first burglary in 25 years last month.
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“The group of four in their minivan rolled in. They’re very efficient. About three minutes in and out,” he said.
Surveillance video from the Goosetown Lounge showed the thieves taking cash from the register and they even stole the ATM machine.
Some Willow Glen businesses have been sharing stories and they agree on two things. One, there’s an uptick in burglaries recently in the neighborhood. And two, it appears that the same group of thieves are responsible.
“It's the same guys. One big guy, couple small guys and then, the driver outside,” said Lynne Rovai, owner of the Goosetown Lounge.
San Jose police said they haven’t made an identification yet but are investigating the cases. Police added the burglary prevention unit is tracking crimes to see which ones are related and where the thieves sell the stolen goods.
The businesses want the city to hire more officers to increase patrols.
“It’s costing us money. I mean, we’re all coming out of COVID, we’re all small businesses,” Rovai said.
