OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) — Security video shows the face of a man stealing from a Filipino restaurant in Oakland early Sunday morning.
The Lumpia Company is co-owned by E-40 and a chef, who says thousands of dollars worth of items were stolen.
Security video captures two thieves inside The Lumpia Company, stealing those items. This is happening just before 3 a.m. on Sunday after the thieves somehow broke into the restaurant on Ninth Avenue.
“This is our dream experience, and this has slowed us down a little bit, so I’m not going to lie, this one hurts,” said The Lumpia Company Chef and Co-owner Alex Retodo.
Thieves targeted The Lumpia Company, somehow breaking through the doors. Thousands of dollars’ worth of equipment was stolen, some of which even helps power a big screen for upcoming World Cup watch parties.
Retodo said this put a major wrench in their plan.
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Surveillance video captures a suspect in action at The Lumpia Company in Oakland early Sunday morning.
“That’s business for us and a chance for community to gather around soccer in the Bay Area,” Retodo said. “That’s tomorrow and this whole week. They couldn’t have hit me at a worse time for a sports bar.
“They left broken glass; they knew what they were doing. Nothing was broken on the entrance, but a lot of valuables were taken from the restaurant.”
The Lumpia Company is co-owned by Bay Area rap legend E-40.
“My partner called me on his jet and said, ‘ Hey, what happened?’ He’s like, I saw the news. I said, ‘E-40, we are going to be okay,'” Retodo said. “We wanted to open with a bang today, playing the (World Cup) games, but we had to turn customers away. We had a party outside; made it happen, but it wasn’t the same.”
Retodo posted videos of the burglary to social media, including a clear picture of one of the thieves.
“I got a good shot on the person. I want to make him famous and say, ‘ Hey man, like don’t do that.’ Let’s stop doing this stuff and make oakland beautiful,” he said.
With the FIFA World Cup coming to the Bay Area, Retodo says they’ve been expanding their ability to host watch parties right along the water.
Retodo says the thieves returned around seven Sunday morning and stole even more items, including his commercial-grade blender.
“My electronics, laptop, things that control movie night, karaoke night,” Retodo said. They even went to the freezer and took my favorite flavors of lumpias — shows our product is good. It’s a little flattering, but that’s a lot of hard work and lost money.
“Need the mergen blender to make the magic sauces to every lumpia.”
One frequent customer lives nearby and says it was unusual to see the lights on early that morning. “The fact that they came back is so messed up,” the customer said.
Retodo says thieves continue to target small businesses that are simply trying to make Oakland a better place.
As they work to replace the stolen equipment, the plan is still to have World Cup watch parties here at The Lumpia Company, but the establishment said it doesn’t know when for now.
It could be sometime this week, hopefully no later than next weekend. Some kind of comeback party is in the works.
Retodo called police and said he was waiting all day to file a report and speak with officers. KRON4 reached out to police and did not hear back in time for publication.
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