An East Bay business owner says he’s tired of criminals targeting his car dealership after a recent incident caught on surveillance camera footage.
Danny Sun is the owner of EKE Motorsports on San Pablo Avenue. His company is right on the border between Richmond and El Cerrito. Sun says a young person tried to steal a car from his lot for the second time this weekend.
The incident happened from Friday evening to Saturday morning. In the video, a man with a laptop walks up to a car and programs something to open the door of one of the used cars on the lot. When the would-be thief cannot start the car, he smashes the window of the dealer’s office with a pipe and then goes inside, presumably to look for the keys.
“There are no consequences, right? If they get arrested, what’s going to happen? Slap them on the hand and they’ll let them go,” Sun said.
This is not the first time something like this has happened at EKE. Sun says that in 2021, an employee was carjacked by a man who originally said he wanted to test drive the car. The employee initially stood in front of the car to prevent the driver from leaving the parking lot. But as the vehicle continued to travel, the worker was thrown onto the hood as the car jack drove away, nearly crushing the worker under the tires.
“Either a thief or a bad guy is going to get hurt, or we’re going to get hurt, because this is getting crazier,” Sun said.
He blames the crime problems on a lack of responsiveness from the Richmond Police Department. Although his dealership’s address is in El Cerrito, it falls under the jurisdiction of the Richmond Police Department. Sun says if something doesn’t change soon, he’ll have to move.
“I’m totally frustrated. You’re kidding me. Again? Again!?? When this happened, I actually wanted to move. I wanted to move to another location. This is like the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he said.
The Richmond Police Department provided this statement to KPIX 5:
“Officers responded to an alarm activation at 10245 San Pablo Ave [the address of EKE Motorsports] and found a broken window at the business. Officers attempted to locate a business owner or responsible party to respond to the business but were unable to locate anyone. At the time of this email, no one from the company has contacted RPD to report a break-in or confirm if anything was stolen.”
In response to the owner’s statement about the Richmond Police Department being understaffed, the statement further read: “We currently have numerous open positions and are actively recruiting. Although as an organization we are short of officers, we have a minimum staffing levels that ensure we have nine officers on staff at all times to ensure the safety needs of our community are met. In that regard, regardless of the total number of officers employed by the department, our minimum staffing level has remained the same .”
Katie Nielsen
