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HAYWARD — The owner of Akiba Headquarters in Hayward said his store has been the target of robberies recently.
In both cases, the robbers fled before police arrived, but what’s most frustrating, the owners told me, is that they believe the same suspect broke in both times.
Henry Yee has been in the collectibles industry for decades and travels around the country selling items at dozens of conventions each year.
During the pandemic, he rented a warehouse to store all his products and opened a small store in the front for customers.
Mr Yee said there had been no problems at the site until last month.
“In early December, they broke in. We were surprised that they came in. We just lightly closed the door. It took less than a minute. They just came in.” said Mr. Yi.
Yee shared store security video of the break-in with KPIX. Inside, the suspects break open the door, run in, grab as much merchandise as possible, and run out.
“The police arrived within about 15 minutes, which was pretty quick. But it was a terrible feeling because they were coming into the place. We always thought it was a pretty safe place.” Mr. Yi said.
The suspects fled before police arrived and stole approximately $1,000 in merchandise.
He replaced the front door, updated some of the security features, got better locks and kept the interior lights on at night. But last week, the store suffered a new robbery.
“The second time around, I think they had a pretty good idea of what they wanted, so they stayed in that one room and took some figures and cards and things like that.” Mr. Yi said.
Again, the suspects fled before police arrived. Everything was frustrating for Yi.
He said he doesn’t worry too much about what was stolen, but it makes it harder for him to feel safe.
“It’s not about replacement. It’s about real asset value. It doesn’t really matter. You wake up in the middle of the night and you have to drive to a job site at 2 or 3 a.m. It’s the anxiety of not knowing if it’s really worth it.’Business is going to be good,” Yee said.
He said they have no plans to leave the location, but if further break-ins continue to occur, they will be forced to make the difficult choice of closing and relocating.
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