San Francisco small business owners are installing extra security in the wake of what police say is a spike in ATM thefts.
Business owners are installing new steel-reinforced doors, multiple locks, chains and extra cameras to prevent break-ins. Some are even changing the layout of their stores to make access to ATMs and cash registers more difficult.
The San Francisco Police Department said there have been 11 ATM thefts citywide this year as of Nov. 29. However, Mission Local reporting suggests the figure is higher, at 16. SFPD was asked for 2022 data on ATM thefts to corroborate the department's claims of a spike, but it did not provide the data by publication time.
Police incident data analyzed by The Standard shows burglaries citywide have decreased 6% year over year. In the 12 months before Dec. 12, 5,762 burglaries were reported. In the same period a year earlier, 6,110 burglaries were reported.
The city also saw a 20% decline in reported burglaries during the same period between 2021 and 2022, with 7,643 reported in the 12 months before Dec. 12, 2021. Burglaries were up in 2020 and 2021 but have continued to decrease post-pandemic.
'Lucky We’re Still in Business'
In the wee hours of Oct. 23, thieves stole the ATM from Clooney’s Pub in the Mission, hitting a police vehicle as they fled the scene in a car. The incident cost the bar “tens of thousands of dollars” in damages, according to owner Dan Lyons.
“We’re lucky we’re still in business,” Lyons said. “There’s really nothing we can do until the city gets a handle on [ATM theft].”
Lyons said his team has added new deadbolts to the front doors and reinforced them with steel plates and will install steel bars inside across the entrance as an extra layer of security. Lyons has also purchased more cameras and an alarm system.
Lyons said he didn't have to spend money to replace the stolen ATM as he's partnering with a separate company to operate it. New ATMs aren't cheap. A replacement can run between $2,000 and $3,000, David Tente, executive director of the ATM Industry Association, said.
While Lyons will not have to fill the ATM with the bar's cash anymore—lowering his own liabilities if thefts occur—he's losing income from fees the bar used to receive when it operated its own machine.
"We're going to end up losing money permanently," Lyons said.
Clooney's bartender Steve Sullivan said not having an ATM for nearly two months—the new one arrived Sunday—meant customers went elsewhere rather than drinking at the cash-only bar.
“Customers would go down the street and not come back,” Sullivan said. “It hurt.”
Sullivan said the bar also placed its new ATM away from the door in an old phone booth at the back of the bar in hopes of hiding it and making it harder for potential thieves to access it during a break-in.
'A Good Run'
Jump Start Coffee & Grocery had its ATM stolen around 4:15 a.m. Oct. 10, but instead of bolstering security, owner Peter Baqain opted not to replace the ATM.
“What’s to stop [thieves] from coming back again?” Baqain asked. “Twenty-nine years with an ATM is a good run.”
Baqain said the biggest problem wasn’t losing the ATM; it was the damage thieves did to his store.
Replacing the section of floor where the ATM was torn from inside his shop, replacing the door that was pried open and fixing the metal security gate has cost him thousands of dollars in repairs, he said. Plus, thieves stole his whole inventory of cigarettes, worth hundreds of dollars. They also stole a price gun, though Baqain wasn't too fussed about that.
“The only thing that saved me was the alarm,” Baqain said. “If there was no alarm, they might have stayed a lot longer than five minutes and taken a lot more stuff.”
Ruth’s at Treat Street hasn’t had its ATM stolen, but the bar staff aren't taking any chances.
Workers say the establishment spent “a few grand” to reinforce its doors with a steel frame and add more security cameras, according to a bartender who declined to share their full name for privacy reasons.
“I feel like a lot of small businesses feel frustrated and helpless right now,” the bartender said.
Cyn Wang, whose family-owned Wang Insurance Agency had its tempered glass storefront smashed last week, said she’d like to install a rolling metal door—a measure that would cost more than $15,000—to prevent future break-ins.
However, she was told by a vendor and her local supervisor’s office that the city is unlikely to approve the permit she would need to get one. Patrick Hannan, a spokesperson for the Department of Building Inspection, which handles permits, said it's not true that the department is unlikely to approve rolling metal door permit requests, adding that staff checks all permits in accordance with city codes.
“The environment is just making it harder and harder to operate as a small business,” Wang said.
ATM theft and fraud jumped nationwide by 165% between 2021 and 2022, according to Tente. He said just over half of ATM crimes in California involve destroying ATMs or stealing them from stores. The remainder is fraud, such as cash trapping or skimming. Nationwide, 80% of ATM crime involves theft or destruction of the machine, while 20% involves fraud.
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development said it has a grant program to help small businesses pay for vandalism costs of up to $2,000. Damage eligible for reimbursement through the grant includes broken windows, broken doors, broken locks, etching on windows, graffiti and other damage.
To be eligible for the grant, businesses must, among other requirements:
- have a storefront,
- have less than $8 million in gross revenue in 2021,
- have no formula retail except franchises with less than $8 million in gross revenue,
- have been damaged on or after Jan. 1, 2022,
- provide proof of damage.
An application for the grant and more information can be found on the department's website.