The Inner Richmond location of the California Street Cannabis Company was hit by burglars in the wee hours Thursday morning, who smashed through the front window with sledgehammers, and got away just as police were arriving.

California Street Cannabis Company opened their second location at Clement Street near Third Avenue in 2021, and it has been burglarized four times since. The latest of these robberies was Thursday morning at about 3:20 am, as KTVU reports that thieves busted through the front windows with sledgehammers in an incident captured by the store’s surveillance video.

That surveillance video is seen in the segment above. The segment also shows that the dispensary was open normal hours on Thursday, as workers install new windows while the store is operating. But the segment also shows five suspects gaining entry by smashing through the windows with sledgehammers and pry bars, and emptying shelves of cannabis.  

The shop’s owner saw this as it was happening in real time, as the security system notified his phone.

"I see that there's five dudes in a car, ransacking the place," owner Duncan Ley told KTVU. "They busted down the front window stole a bunch of product."

Police did arrive on the scene, though just as the burglars were getting away.

SFPD Captain Chris Canning said to the station, "Officers on patrol came upon what ended up being the end of the crime, and responded, attempted to coordinate an arrest of the suspects. Sadly, that wasn't successful."

Ley mentioned that another dispensary on Market Street was also burglarized Wednesday night or Thursday morning, but did not mention which dispensary that was.

Anyone with information on this incident is asked to call the SFPD Tip Line at (415) 575-4444, or Text a Tip to TIP411 and begin the message with “SFPD.” Tipsters can remain anonymous.

Related: Thieves Use a Forklift to Break Into and Rob Oakland Cannabis Business [SFist]

Image: Google Street View