South Sound businessman says uptick in crime is keeping him up at night

The owner of nine Subways in the South Sound says his restaurants have been violently and repeatedly robbed over the last six months, but he says his pleas for help from city leaders have gone unanswered.

He owns two locations in Tacoma.

One of those restaurants is right here in North Tacoma, and it has been hit by crooks at least four times.

Owner Tony Puckett says he has done what he can to protect his staff, but he needs help only the Tacoma police can provide.

The prospect of yet another robbery at one of his Subway restaurants is what Puckett says is keeping him up at night.

“Been having a very rough go,” Puckett said. “Had 10 robberies, three break-ins, five broken windows. Not to mention the ungodly number of homeless people coming in stealing stuff and terrorizing my staff.”

He says he has filed numerous police reports.

“This one goes from 9/20 all the way to up to 3/7,” he said, referring to the dates of the reports.

“Look, Subway was arm(ed) robbed last month twice,” said Tony Leyva, manager of ACE Hardware. He says that several other businesses here have also been targeted by thieves.

“Pizza Hut down here just got robbed two nights ago, armed robbery,” said Leyva. “Key Bank just got robbed last week.”

In her state of the city address, Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards said that tackling the city’s historically high crime rate is her highest priority.

“We can,” said Woodards. “We must. And more importantly, we will do better.”

“It’s frustration and anger at this point,” said Puckett. “I’m just getting really irritated.”

Puckett says his many emails to the mayor and the city council have gone unanswered except for a canned response. He says if he could, he would have closed up shop here.

“I would have moved,” said Puckett. “You’ve got to talk with your feet if you’re not being listened to.”

He and others say what they need are more Tacoma police officers and more criminals going to jail.

He says he cannot run both his business and police it.

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