The day after city leaders, including the police chief, held a merchant walk to promote public safety ahead of the community's annual Lunar New Year event, two burglars broke into Ingleside bubble tea shop Purtea.

“I knew it was coming but it still hurts,” Purtea’s Tracy Zhou said, noting that the storefront’s previous tenant warned her about crime.

Security camera footage Zhou shared on social media shows the assailants smashing the storefront door at 2 a.m. Unable to enter, the pair left and returned at 4 a.m. with tools to gain entry. They broke the cash register to take $20 in coins and stole five tablets used for online delivery service.

“I don’t feel safe — I’m never going to feel safe here — I just know it will happen again,” Zhou said. “How do I prepare better for the next one?”

Despite citywide crime reports falling below pre-pandemic levels, late-night break-ins have frustrated Ingleside’s merchant community in recent years. Merchants told The Ingleside Light they wanted more patrols at night — and other security measures to improve real and perceived safety.

The police department is short about 500 officers and relies on pricy mandatory overtime to maintain staffing. In 2023, the 130,000 residents served by Taraval Station were protected by four officers at night. Ingleside’s Ocean Avenue hasn’t had two dedicated footbeat officers due to the officer shortage. And promises for safety ambassadors and security cameras have gone unmet.

Marilyn Lee, owner of Go Go 7, told San Francisco Police Department Chief Bill Scott on Saturday that her restaurant was broken into three times in 2024. And multiple late-night burglaries forced The Ave Bar, one of the neighborhood’s legacy businesses, to close until further notice last year.

Aside from Purtea, six storefronts along Ocean Avenue — Java On Ocean, The Ave Bar and Lucky Ocean Cafe — have boarded-up doors or windows from break-ins and vandalism.

Barry Yeung, owner of the popular sushi restaurant Sakesan, said his business was hit by a late-night burglary in January 2024.

“We definitely need more cops driving on Ocean at night,” Yeung said.

Police Protection

Newly elected Mayor Daniel Lurie, whose office directed The Ingleside Light to the police department, pledged to focus on public safety by fully staffing the police department so officers can be better embedded into the neighborhood, attend community meetings, build relationships with residents and work proactively to address issues before they escalate.

“Safety isn’t just a statistic, it’s a feeling you hold when you’re walking down the street,” Lurie said during his inauguration last month.

How that feeling of safety will be created in Ingleside remains unclear.

Taraval Station Capt. Brien Hoo told The Ingleside Light that crime is currently down 70% across the district from last year due to his efforts of allocating overtime for proactive patrolling during the night watch. Since the start of the year, 26 burglaries have been reported to Taraval Station with five occurring along Ocean Avenue compared to the 87 that happened overall last year within the same time frame. 

Hoo also said that Taraval Station currently has 54 officers, down from 100 officers in the past.

Hoo urged small business owners to read his newsletter for safety tips, subscribe to his X feed, talk to the neighborhood’s footbeat officers, attend Taraval Station’s and other local organizations' community meetings, have the Neighborhood Safety Team do an assessment for their business and most importantly report crimes to 911, 311 or the non-emergency number instead of to social media platforms like Nextdoor, Citizen, Whatsapp, WeChat or X since they don’t monitor those platforms.

Moving Forward

After the break-in, Zhou contacted the offices of District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar and District 11 Supervisor Chyanne Chen, the Ocean Avenue Association and SFPD.

“[The association] is committed to supporting efforts to prevent crime and promote safety for the merchants, patrons and community members of Ocean Avenue,” OAA Deputy Director Gabriel Cory said, adding that the organization is willing to help Zhou apply for the city's vandalism relief grant.

Zhou is meeting with Officer Drewkai Butler on Thursday. Melgar’s office did not provide comment by press time.

Chen said her office has begun partnering with Taraval Station to form community outreach and educational safety workshop programs on Ocean Avenue for small business owners to be equipped with any tools they need like what types of security cameras to buy or other tips for preventing future break-ins. They will be modeled after similar programs in operation for the Sunset.

In 2023, former District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí pledged to bring security cameras to Ocean Avenue, a project that Safaí’s office told The Ingleside Light last year was stalled due to the controversy with San Francisco SAFE. Chen said that she has not heard any requests about the cameras but will continue to have more conversations with the district’s merchants about their safety needs.

“We want to continue to be proactive,” Chen said. “We’ll continue to raise the alarm and continue to work together with the merchants to make sure [they know] what they can do on their own.”