A North Seattle gas station owner is fed up after two of his shops were broken into just a week apart.
His Shoreline Shell station was hit on Thursday morning and his Ballard location was hit just last week.
“They took their time, like 4 or 5 minutes, and made a lot of damage,” said gas station owner Bobby Sangar.
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Sangar is describing the moment a blue car backed into his storefront early Thursday morning, just about 20 minutes before they open.
Four thieves made their way through a small opening. They knocked down shelves and took cigarettes and a safe with a lot of cash.
“I was frustrated when I saw the damages, I was like, ‘Oh, this going to happen again. It happened at my other store, lot of damages,” Sangar explained.
He feels like he can’t catch a break since he’s still dealing with another hit at his Ballard location just last week.
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He says teens came in during store hours and stole several products.
“We’re trying to settle down a little bit and when we heard this one, it’s just heartbreaking for us,” he said.
The more this keeps happening, the more he says he’s having to pay out of pocket.
“Either the insurance company cancels the insurance or the price goes double,” he said.
Sangar is now calling on police and city officials to do their part in protecting business owners.
“We pay them taxes. And in return, what do we get? I need their help. We need to run the business and we want to feel we’re protected. My employees, me, our store, our property. You know, if this keeps happening, we can’t run the business.”
Sangar says it’ll cost upwards of $30,000 to fix. Moving forward, he plans on putting up extra reinforcements to keep his shop and employees safe.