People working at the Safeway Distribution Center in Auburn are demanding changes following nearly 50 cars were broken into while they were at work.
The first instance happened on New Year’s Eve. According to employees who did not want to be identified for fear of retaliation, an overhead announcement said one car had been broken into, then employees walked through the aisles telling each other, it was more than just one.
During their lunch break at 8 a.m., they counted 35 cars with windows smashed, police counted 25. Five days later, it happened again.
“The first thing that went through my mind after the second break-in was this can’t be possible, this can’t be real, this can’t be happening.” said one employee. KIRO is calling Thomas.
KIRO is hiding the identity of the two employees who spoke to us under the names Thomas and Mike. Both are afraid of being fired for speaking out about what happened.
That time around a dozen cars had windows smashed, though Auburn Police says nothing was reported stolen. The first round, clothes, cameras, and even guns were taken from the cars.
“It broke our spirit a little bit to be honest,” Thomas said, “Me personally, I was very frustrated and I can speak to a lot of other guys as well, the holidays had just passed, Christmas and if anyone had planned on new years eve and new years day that had to be reevaluated.”
Thomas says his car’s damage is going to cost him around $600, about as much as the insurance deductible. That’s on top of the thousands of dollars in camera gear that was swiped from his car. He had a shoot the night before.
“I went straight from the production into work, hoping that it was just going to be another normal day and that unfortunate circumstance happen,” Thomas said.
For Mike, he’s worked at the Distribution Center for several years. He says the company has added gates and fences in the past after cars have been stolen, but he says this is an example of how vulnerable employees feel. Many are having friends and family drop them off and pick them up from work.
“A lot of these guys are saying I’m going to work to earn my money, but I’m throwing it away to fix my window,” Mike said. “Because of the firearms that we’re stolen who knows what these guys are capable of.”
Mike says the surveillance footage of the incident shows masked people coming out of a Kia.
Mike, Thomas, and several other employees are calling on Safeway to enhance its security at the Distribution Center, especially after they say no noticeable changes happened after the first round of break-ins.
“Safeway needs to do more to protect the property of its employees when they are at work. We have called on the company to fully compensate our members for any damages incurred from the recent break-ins and to provide a permanent security presence at the facility parking lot. So far, we have not received a definitive response.”
KIRO reached out to Safeway’s media line for a response. When contacted for other stories in the last several months, Safeway’s media voicemail box was full. When that number was called today, it was completely disconnected.
Mike says there’s a disagreement between his management and the company providing security gaurds. A person familiar with conversations of safety improvement who was not authorized to speak to the media said on the background that there are both long-term and short-term strategies they are looking at to protect employees at work.