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‘It’s disheartening.’ West Hollywood businesses hit by repeated burglaries – NBC Los Angeles
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‘It’s disheartening.’ West Hollywood businesses hit by repeated burglaries – NBC Los Angeles

A West Hollywood small business owner desperately wants to get arrested and gets answers after being attacked by vandals and burglars three times in the past three weeks.

Bikes and Hikes LA on Santa Monica Boulevard was broken into on Tuesday, with the burglars making off with six electric bikes worth $20,000. Surveillance footage showed the burglars smashing the front window with a hammer and breaking inside.

“The third (robbery), they broke the safe, took some keys to our store, they unlocked it with the keys and just walked away with six bikes,” said Jason Bowers, general manager of Bikes and Hikes LA. “It’s disheartening. It’s disheartening when we’ve had a burglary once and then it happens over and over again and it’s one step forward, two steps back, it’s just a lot of that.”

Bikes and Hikes LA is just one of many small businesses that have been the victim of burglaries this week. In Chatsworth, five thieves stole nearly $30,000 worth of merchandise after driving a stolen truck into a smoke shop on Thursday.

Danny Roman, owner of Bikes and Hikes LA, says these break-ins have forced them to make difficult decisions regarding their insurance.

“We have to decide whether or not to report it to the insurance company,” Roman said. “We’ve had it happen to us many times where I’ve decided not to report it because you report it, your rates quadruple the next year or they just drop you.”

Roman is offering a $1,000 reward to anyone with information about the burglars. In the meantime, the bike shop owner said he is spending thousands more on security measures that will hopefully prevent another break-in.

“I hope it stops. Yes, we want justice and yes, we want to find out who did this, but ultimately I want our neighborhood to feel safe,” Roman said.