SAN FRANCISCO—A popular ice cream store in San Francisco was vandalized and robbed last week. Toy Boat Cafe, located on Clement Street, recently re-opened in late September. On October 8, Toy Boat Cafe made a post on Instagram, announcing two incidents that occurred at their location within a week.
The windows of the business were initially vandalized with acid, after which a man pretending to be a worker came to “fix” the windows, before stealing several rare and vintage toys displayed near the ceiling. Employees were preoccupied with customers, and trusting of the repair, that they didn’t notice the theft take place. The toys were a collection of vintage tin robots and tin wind-up figures belonging to the original owner, and were intended to be a personal and original touch of decor to the business.
“We are heartbroken that today someone pretending to be a repair person for our vandalized windows stole a huge part of this collection. Any information is much appreciated. These items are special to so many people and our staff was trusting that someone was here to fix our ruined windows. The thought that this was staged to steal toys is really hard to take,” read the Instagram post.
Police are currently investigating the incident, and are trying to identify suspects and a motive.
Toy Boat has been in business on Clement Street for 38 years. The longtime owners decided to sell it this summer, where it temporarily closed to undergo new ownership. Amanda Michael, who owns several bakeries across San Francisco, bought the business and reopened it in September, under the new name “Toy Boat By Jane”.
Despite the robbery, Toy Boat Cafe is still open for business as usual, from 8:00 am – 8:00 pm daily.
