Saturday 29 January 2022

Thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen from Pleasant Hill gym

PLEASANT HILL, Calif. (KRON) -- "He immediately went into the gym and noticed computers were missing, laptops, iPads," said one gym owner in the East Bay.

Late Friday night, two men were caught on camera burglarizing, and about five thousand dollars worth of equipment was stolen from Diablo CrossFit in Pleasant Hill.

Gym owner Craig Howard says Diablo CrossFit is a small, local business that has had a couple of tough years with the impact of the COVID-19 shutdowns and restrictions.

Now, the events Friday is just one more hurdle.

"You get that feeling of being violated. We had someone who came in and prowled around our premises at will, with ease, and obviously very comfortable," Howards said.

Two men were caught by the gym's security cameras going around the gym for about 30 minutes looking for things to take.

Then, one of the coaches noticed early Saturday morning then informed Howard.

"He had found the gym in disarray. He could tell immediately that someone had broken in," Howard said.

He checked the security video and could see it all go down -- two men looking around and then stuffing items into a bag.

They broke in through a back window.

In the video, one of the men noticed the security camera and covered his face.

Since most of the gym equipment is too heavy or large to move, the suspects went after electronics.

"We moved a lot of our business online, and to be online you have camera equipment, sound equipment, we have mixer boards for podcasts."

Howard reached out to Pleasant Hill police and told him they were in the area about 15 minutes after they believe the suspects left.

Police say the suspects may have triggered an alarm at a neighboring building.

Police told Howard the suspects may have been strategic with their timing.

"A big car accident in Pleasant Hill that night about the same time and (the suspects) monitored that because they know the police will be distracted," Howard said.

Howard says, in the last month, they've had reports of people seen around the building after hours.

Police told him these situations are becoming more common, but they say the suspects usually don't come back because many homes or business owners fortify their space after a break-in.

"For our members, I would say we're probably safer now than we were prior to this and they should feel comfortable coming back in," Howard said.

The owner said they've been located in that building for 13 years. In that time, this is their second break-in.



from KRON4 https://ift.tt/wYLRzM0my


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