A Richmond Bike Shop was hit with a thousands of dollars after a burglary cleared out their shop earlier this month.
According to Najari Smith, co-owner of Rich City Rides Bike Skate Shop, on January 13, he entered the bike shop to discover most of the sales floor completely cleared out. The store, located at 1500 MacDonald Ave, Unit C in Richmond CA, is closed indefinitely.
“The shelves, once stocked with bicycle locks, lights, bells, and other retail products, were bare, and the display cases were empty. There was no sign of forced entry, and the internal cameras had been unplugged. In a state of shock, I went to the storage area in the back of the shop; I learned that most of the inventory had been stolen,” said Smith said on Facebook.
On Tuesday, Smith said the loss was estimated at $13k.
“We’re still gathering more information on the stolen inventory. Currently, it’s estimated at just a little over $13k at wholesale. Mostly, the smaller expensive, easy-to-carry items were stolen. This number could change as we gather more info. The total debt is $186,041.99,” stated Smith. “There was no sign of forced entry, and the internal cameras were unplugged. Someone changed my password and I had to call ADT while I was in the shop to verify that I was the business owner.”
Smith said he plans to reopen the store sometime in the future while bringing it back to Downtown Richmond which is why a GoFundMe was launched.
Here is their GoFundMe message for Rich City Rides:
3 comments
Look at your business partner!
Nothing fishy about this at all. And a gofundme panhandle to boot.
That’s my bike hanging up in the picture and that’s exactly how the shop was before the alleged incident. I say that because no theft ever occurred. Najari has not been a part of the day to day operations of the shop for months, he runs the non profit and only claimed the theft to illegally change the locks on the workers. It’s unfortunate he’s chosen to lie about this and other financial matters but the truth will come out eventually!
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