Black Friday at San Francisco’s Union Square heavily guraded by police

By Pennie Spruill On Nov 25, 2023

SAN FRANCISCO, California – Union Square, San Francisco’s busiest business area, will have more police officers on the beat.

It was planned for police to be present more, but this week thieves broke into the Pleasant Hill Kohl’s store and drove a Ford cargo van right through the locked doors, doing a lot of damage.

The thieves broke into the store on Thanksgiving night and stole jewelry and sunglasses. They then left the van behind and drove off in their getaway car. That day, the store was closed, but it opened again on Friday.

During the smash-and-grab crime spree in 2021, Union Square was hit hard. Many big stores closed for good.

This year, more police officers will be on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week during the holiday shopping season. People came back to shop for Black Friday deals.

The parent from Fairfield took his family shopping and ice skating.

What to take in consideration while going out

“You should know that we never leave anything in the car.” “We carry as little cash as possible and only use credit cards,” Parminder said.

“People who are coming down here to scam shoppers should think twice,” Sgt. Kathryn Winters of the San Francisco Police Department told KTVU.

The mobile command center for the cops was parked outside of the Apple Store on Friday.

Winters said that on Black Friday, there were three times as many police officers going around the square as on a normal Friday. There were dozens of police officers. There are undercover cops on the task team.

A shopper from San Francisco named Manny Aguilar said, “I think that’s good to stop shoplifting and other bad things, because it’s sad to see a lot of store owners just losing.”

James Cheung came from Hong Kong all the way. Before he got there, he had a bad opinion of the place.

“Dangerous, a lot of homeless people they take drugs as well, but today it’s like pretty safe when I come here,” Cheung stated.

While she was in town from Denmark, Martine Levinsen said she always pays attention to what’s going on around her.

“We have to watch out more and yeah be safe all the time,” said Levensen.

Fanay Figala used to work at a San Francisco Nordstrom store that had to close because of theft. On Black Friday, she was shopping at Macy’s and saw that a lot of items were locked up.

“Everything, especially designer brands, because my husband always buys Polo Ralph Lauren,” said Figala. “Everything is locked, so I have to ask for assistance, so somebody has to unlock [items] but I don’t mind.”