Santa Rosa burglary caught on video as thieves steal $15,000 in power tools

It was still dark Thursday morning when Mike Schramm, on his way to San Francisco for a salmon fishing trip, got an alert on his phone showing a break-in at the Santa Rosa yard and garden store he owns.

He was leaving Santa Rosa on Highway 101 and pulled over to watch live surveillance video of six men busting through the gated glass front door at his Rincon Valley Yard & Garden, on Highway 12 near the intersection of Middle Rincon Road.

In hurried, rotating trips, the burglars - their faces and heads covered - hurled high-end chainsaws, weed trimmers, leaf blowers and generators into a large white van parked outside the store.

Alarmed, Schramm used the phone to quickly call police. He doubled back toward his business but by the time he’d arrived the thieves were gone.

“I was really angry. You just feel completely violated,” Schramm said. “You could tell these guys were pros.”

Santa Rosa police said they suspect that is the case.

Sgt. Marcus Sprague, who is overseeing an investigation into the 4 a.m. burglary, said the surveillance video taken from inside and outside the store indicates that the people involved are experienced in such crimes.

They threw a small boulder into the glass door, shattering a hole that they kicked to enlarge. A man then reached through and used a handheld circular saw to cut a latch at the bottom of a steel gate inside. They then drove the van into a pry bar placed on the outside of the main door, forcing it open.

“It appears that they work in concert, and they know what they’re doing,” Sprague said.

Their faces were covered by bandannas or shirts. Some wore hats and others had hoods pulled over their heads.

In about 3 minutes at the store, they made off with 42 pieces of professional quality power equipment, valued at $15,000, according to Schramm. Most of the equipment was high-end Stihl-brand tools, known by their distinctive orange and white colors.

Sprague said detectives are looking for a group of people, possibly from outside Sonoma County, who are known to carry out such coordinated thefts. Some target specialty items, such as the Stihl equipment sold at Schramm’s store, which he has owned since 1999.

The white Ford van used by the burglars was stolen from Solano County, according to Santa Rosa police.

Schramm said he’s heard of at least three similar types of burglaries in Sonoma County, and he said his Stihl distributor told him such thefts are common across California.

Stores in Sonoma County are particularly attractive because they tend to stock high-quality power tools, he said.

“Dealers like us have bigger chainsaws because there’s bigger trees up here and it’s more agricultural, and there tends to be more money in Northern California,” Schramm said. “People need to be aware of this. …. Dealers are getting hit left and right.”

Sprague said Santa Rosa property crimes detectives were not aware of any recent reports of similar burglaries in the area.

“I haven’t heard of us getting hit like that, but it’s plausible,” Sprague said. “This kind of stuff happens - crews go through the Bay Area looking for stuff like this. It’s market-driven based on what they can sell.”

In general, burglars with such loot already have a known buyer or market. Sprague said tracking down the equipment outside of such rings is difficult. The stolen merchandise has serial numbers, but officers don’t make a regular habit of checking random yard equipment while on patrol.

“If you have a guy and he has a leaf blower, unless he’s committing a crime, we don’t stop and check,” Sprague said.

Schramm is offering a $500 reward for the arrest and conviction of the burglars who hit his store. An additional $2,500 reward has been offered by the Sonoma County Alliance, a local business coalition.

You can reach Staff Writer Angela Hart at 526-8503 or angela.hart@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @ahartreports.