Family-owned boba shop in SF hit with two burglaries in one day

Chinatown boba shop Love Tea in San Francisco encountered two different burglaries within minutes of each other at around 4 a.m. on March 30, reports CBS News Bay Area.

Surveillance footage shows the first burglary with a woman walking into the establishment through an already broken glass door a little after 4 a.m. In less than two minutes, the woman leaves with all the money out of the tip jar and the cash register.

Ten minutes later, a man walks through the same opening and attempts but fails to get any money out of the register. Instead, he opts for the electronic tablets that the business uses for delivery order services like Grubhub or Doordash.

The burglar then goes upstairs where he steals a printer, cash and a purse.

Nancy Yu Law, owner of Love Tea, told CBS News Bay Area that it’s been a difficult two years since setting shop on Broadway and Grant Avenue in 2021.

This recent break-in, unfortunately, wasn’t the first.

Last summer, multiple individuals burglarized Yu Law’s gift shop Asia Star Fantasy in a similar fashion. The incident alone hit the small business with a major financial blow of at least $4000.

“It’s just like a big hit to me. This is a really big hit,” Yu Law told CBS News Bay Area. “I just don’t know what to say. I just feel like I’ve been unlucky.”

At the time, Yu Law didn’t have the funds for an alarm system until the Be Chinatown coalition raised enough money for her.

“Everybody in the community works like seven days a week and we all hard-working people,” Yu Law told CBS News Bay Area. “I hope people come to Chinatown more often, to help the small business out. We need their business and we very welcoming them.”