The owner of a San Francisco cigarette shop says thieves hit his store and rammed a vehicle into the front doors.
The incident happened early Wednesday morning at the Cigarettes Cheaper store at 17th Avenue and Geary Boulevard in San Francisco’s Richmond District.
San Francisco resident Harrison Green told NBC Bay Area that he saw the damage as he walked by the store Wednesday morning.
"There were a couple police officers here talking with the owner. And, the door was ripped off it's hinges. Looks like the Incredible Hulk went in and ripped if off,” he said.
Store owner Zaid Rahmani and nearby residents shared NBC Bay Area photos of the car they said was involved in the break-in.
Rahmani said police arrived on scene pretty quickly just after 3 a.m. and confronted about 10 robbers, who tried getting away in three cars. He added the white sedan in the photos even hit a responding police cruiser. Howard Bradford, who lives nearby the store, said he heard the commotion.
"I heard a like a screeching sound and like a car that was like, peeling off. I actually didn't understand where the sound came from,” he said. “And I have kids in my camp say that they heard. And then, we heard this place had got ran into so, we figured that was the sound we heard in the morning."
The store owner didn't have a chance to speak with NBC Bay Area on camera because he was too busy buying items to fix his front doors and because he's still too upset about what happened.
He said that he's frustrated by this break in, because it's not the first time.
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Rahmani told NBC Bay Area Wednesday that he estimates there's about 50-thousand dollars in damage. And he's no longer insured because of prior break ins.
Marjan Philhour is running to replace current San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan. She said crime has been a major concern in the district over the last few years.
"It's not his fault that he is deemed "uninsurable" by an insurance company, right?" Philhour said. "Insurance companies look and they do their analysis. And here on Geary Boulevard, and other merchant corridors, Clement Street back in January, we had six businesses get broken into overnight."
NBC Bay Area was told Chan was not available for comment on Wednesday because she's on the committee that's finalizing the city budget. but an aid said that Chan has been pushing the mayor's office to deploy more officers to the Richmond District.
Rahmani said there is video of the break-in as he's still working on retrieving it from his surveillance system.
