At an Oakland, California, pizzeria that was robbed four times in a month, its employees took matters into their own hands by fending off a thief with a hammer and a trash can.
Employees at Cybelle's Pizza refused to be intimidated when a burglar stormed in and tried to steal the cash register Friday evening, the New York Post reported Tuesday.
An employee then displayed a hammer while her colleague threw a wastebasket at the reckless intruder, who, faced with this turn of events, eventually fled but was quickly arrested by police.
“They tried to rob the cash register, my employees were very, very brave… I told them not to do that, but they had to defend themselves,” business owner Elizabeth Sanchez told Fox.
“Sales are down because no one wants to go out, they are afraid for their safety,” Ms. Sanchez admitted to local media group KGO, indicating that these declines were greater than those recorded during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ms. Sanchez, who deplores the increase in crime in the region, plans with her husband to close their establishment and move to San Francisco, while Mayor Sheng Thao has indicated, according to American media, that he wants to strengthen security in the districts.
For his part, California Governor Gavin Newsom announced in a press release on Tuesday the deployment of a highway patrol with the deployment of 120 California Highway Patrol officers to Oakland to help fight crime.