Skip to main content
News

San Francisco Express store staffer hit with metal pole during robbery

Customers leave an Express store in Union Square in San Francisco on Nov. 16, 2022. | Source: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

A worker at San Francisco’s soon-to-close Express clothing store in Union Square was hit with a metal pole during a robbery, according to police and staff.

The Express is slated to close its doors on Sunday, according to a sign posted in the entryway.

San Francisco Police Department spokesperson Robert Rueca said an employee was hit with a metal pole by a man, who then fled the store with merchandise.

Rueca said officers arrived just before 1 p.m. Monday at the Geary Street store and later found the suspect after witnesses alerted to police to his location.

Officers rendered aid and summoned medics to the scene, who took the victim to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.

A store employee, who did not give their name because they are not authorized to speak with the press, said an investigation into the incident is ongoing. They added that the injured employee was OK.

The clothing store is one of several to leave the area recently, including Nordstrom, Uniqlo and Old Navy.

Nearly half of Union Square retailers opened before the pandemic shut down by May.

‘Blitz Operations’

San Francisco Police Chief Bill Scott recently announced that his department launched a new citywide program to combat organized retail theft by conducting undercover enforcement operations at local stores.

The so-called “blitz operations” are already yielding results, police say, with officers making dozens of arrests in recent weeks and recovering thousands of dollars in stolen merchandise from some of San Francisco’s most victimized retailers.

SFPD is funding the surge in enforcement through a recently awarded $15.3 million state grant targeting organized retail crime. Scott credited the operations to strong partnerships between police and businesses.