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San Francisco bar burglars steal ATM, smash into cop car to escape

A Google Street View image from March 2022 shows Clooney's Bar at the corner of Valencia and 25th streets in San Francisco's Mission District.
A Google Street View image from March 2022 shows Clooney's Bar at the corner of Valencia and 25th streets in San Francisco's Mission District. | Source: Courtesy Google Street View

Burglars rammed their vehicle into a cop car and escaped with an ATM and cash from a bar in San Francisco's Mission District on Monday morning, police said.

Officers responded at 3:17 a.m. to a report of a possible burglary at Clooney's Pub at Valencia and 25th streets. Witnesses told police they saw a vehicle outside the pub and a person trying to break inside.

When officers arrived, they found a vehicle parked outside the bar with a person behind the wheel. As officers approached the vehicle, two other people left the bar and got into the car.

The car then struck the patrol vehicle before speeding away, police said. There were no reports of injuries.

Missing from the business premises was an ATM and an unspecified amount of cash.

"They came when no one was here—they robbed us," said a worker who answered the phone but declined comment when The Standard called Monday afternoon. "It was a typical robbery."

On Oct. 12, two men were charged in connection with three violent business holdups over an eight-day period in and around the Mission District.

On Sept. 20, a liquor store on the corner of Haight and Divasadero streets in the Lower Haight had its ATM stolen in a burglary around 1 a.m., police told The Standard. The business owner told police several other items were also stolen, and the suspects fled before officers arrived.

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to questions about a possible rise in ATM thefts when asked on Sept. 21.

On Sept. 15, a vehicle smashed into a San Francisco CVS store entrance during an attempted robbery that damaged an ATM.

There were reported 42 burglaries in the Mission in the 30 days before Oct. 21—the most of any city neighborhood. There were 510 burglaries in the 12 months before Sept. 30 compared to 595 during the same 12-month period ending in September 2022, according to police data analyzed by The Standard. There were 664 reported burglaries in the same 12-month period ending in September 2021.

Citywide, the number of reported burglaries has dropped since mid-pandemic 2021, from 92 to 69 incidents per 10,000 residents.

George Kelly can be reached at gkelly@sfstandard.com