“I turned it off Sunday because it was bothering the neighbors in the restaurant next door and on Sunday night they jiggled the door and the alarm didn’t go off and so they broke in. That is the night the burglars broke into her store. On Sunday she thought she should turn the alarm off and call the alarm company to come and check it for electrical problems. So she thought maybe there was an electrical short in the alarm system. But then later he would text or phone her that her alarm was going off again. Then Saturday night she kept getting texts and alerts that her alarm was going off again, so she phoned the tenant above her store, who told her that it wasn’t going off at the moment. When she went there on Saturday, she was wondering why it did. She said the previous Friday night, the alarm went off. “I’m getting a brand-new alarm that’s going to be bigger and louder,” she said. The cameras will set off my phone, give me an alert with a video if any movement happens. And I’m going to put two cameras in here…. So I hired a new alarm company and I’ve got cameras coming…. But I also put a plywood back so that it’s going to be very difficult for them to get in,” she said. “So, when I had the glass put back on the door, it’s a special kind of glass it’s three layers with plastic. “It started during COVID where we started getting a lot of these emails and it was almost every day that somebody else was burglarized – not only once, twice, or three times,” she said.

Nabhan belongs to the Clement Street Merchants Association, so whenever a merchant gets robbed, burglarized or vandalized, they put out an email to the group. The burglars broke the glass on her front door and made off with almost $13,000 of merchandise, including: rings, sterling silver, two cases of jewelry including expensive ruby-emerald jewelry, a big Tiffany-style lamp, an entire case of watches, one of her designer purses and her laptop computer.

Being on the bus, I have to be aware of my surroundings at all times. I have to not make eye contact when I’m walking around the streets and be defensive. “It’s so awful what’s happened in my city. “When I came on Monday morning, I just felt not safe anymore and not happy about having a business anymore that people could just take what they want and there’s no consequence for them,” Nabhan said. Kashya Shei (right) from the Sunset District is a first-time customer who heard about the burglary and came to support Phyllis Nabhan (left) by purchasing a ring.

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