Burglary crew tunnels through shops in Los Angeles' garment district

Nearly a dozen business owners in Los Angeles’ garment district are reeling after a burglary crew cut through locks, tunneled through drywall and ransacked their shops, stealing tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise, office equipment and cash.  

The thieves, who dismantled an alarm system and disabled surveillance cameras, had more than 24 hours to loot the stores, with owners closing up shop at 4 p.m. Saturday and police being called at around 1 a.m. Monday morning when someone reported hearing a noise in the businesses.  

By the time authorities arrived, the suspects had already fled.  

“We got the worst of it because they made a mess of our store,” Brandon Bello, whose father, Alvara, owns BKA Fashion. “We found shelves thrown, stuff from the wall thrown. It’s all a mess.”  

The damage to many of the shops is extensive. As the burglars smashed through drywall downstairs and upstairs, they left garments, machinery and even personal documents stored in the shops in complete disarray.  

In the case of the Bellos, they crooks even got away with cash.  

“[My dad] and mom work really hard,” Brandon explained. “My brothers go to school and me and my other brother go to college, and they try to provide for us. This is just annoying.” 

His father explained that business has already been hard for many of the small shop owners.  

“When we opened and saw this, I just felt my whole world go down, like I didn’t have anything anymore,” Alvara told KTLA’s Jennifer McGraw. “Like, ‘What am I going to do? Maybe I’m going to close the store, maybe I’m going to look for another job.’” 

Im Kang, another shop owner, says the burglars spent hours hacking through the walls, sifting through documents and stealing cash, checks, computers and personal property.  

“This has been ongoing for five to seven years in this area and we’re just really sick of it,” Kang said.  

Now, fearing identity theft on top of the losses and the mess, she’s unsure whether she will survive this attack.  

“We’ve never had it this bad, the crime,” she said. “It keeps getting bigger and bigger and we need to solve this problem as soon as possible.”  

In the meantime, a GoFundMe has been organized for BKA Fashion as they try to recover from the break-in.  

Anyone with information about this investigation is urged to contact the Los Angeles Police Department.