Armed robbers stormed his crowded coffee shop in San Francisco. Now he wants action

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A business owner demands crackdown on police after armed robbers broke into his crowded Lower Height cafe and tried to steal a customer’s laptops.

Mustafa Hakkou, owner of Le Cafe Du Soleil, posted footage of the robbery showing a man trying to take a customer’s laptop before a fight breaks out. Seconds later, another man enters the store brandishing a gun.

The bumbling robbers left empty-handed after customers put up resistance, but the incident left the cafe owner intimidated by the brazen attempt.

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“This has happened before, but never with the use of weapons. It was a violation of my home,” said Hakkou, who has owned Le Cafe Du Soleil since it opened in 2005. “I spend more time at work than at home.”

Hakkou lived in San Francisco for 34 years after moving from Morocco when he was 18 years old.

“Initially, I liked San Francisco because we didn’t have the same problem as third world countries, but, sorry, it’s getting like this,” said Hakkow, who heard about the robbery from an employee while he was being driven to Vallejo on a Tuesday.

CCTV footage shows two men in black sweatshirts running towards the store. An inside camera then shows the struggle as one man attempts to steal a laptop from a customer but is met with fierce resistance. Another man then enters with a gun at the ready and tries to save his supposed collaborator. Footage from the outside shows the couple fleeing less than a minute later, as if empty-handed.

Hakko said his workers were frightened after the attempted robbery — during the incident, two chefs and a barista hid in a cold store — the store closed early that day.

Following the attempted armed robbery, Hakkou called for increased police foot patrols in the area and said the city should pursue petty theft more strictly as a deterrent.

“People need to understand that we have law and order,” Hakkou said. “They steal a computer and get a misdemeanor, but the problem is not in this, but in violation of the space. When I am insulted and I am afraid to go to work, this is [worth] more than 1000 dollars. That’s not how you live in San Francisco.”

Le Cafe Du Soleil reopened at Lower Height at 400 Waller Street in January 2022 after the original location across the street at 200 Fillmore Street was closed during Covid.

“We will continue to move forward. Things are going well, we are going back to what it was before, but then it comes out of nowhere. I hope this doesn’t happen again,” Hakkou said.

The San Francisco Police Department confirmed that the robbery attempt took place around 1:40 p.m. Tuesday. One of the three victims suffered a non-life-threatening injury, officers said.

“In order to improve operations and outcomes in cases such as the Le Café Du Soleil case, District Attorney Brooke Jenkins has created a Serious Crimes Unit in the General Criminal Division to focus on more serious and complex criminal offenses such as certain armed robberies and assassination attempts. on the kill, which take a lot of time. and more complex,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said in an email.

The police department has been contacted for further comment.

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