The Bay Area's rising reputation for crime is the main reason a beloved food business is leaving Oakland.
Last week, In-N-Out, the California fast food chain with a huge cult following, closed its only Oakland branch due to crime.
According to In-N-Out chief operating officer Denny Warnick, East Oakland customers have experienced "car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies," according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Though the company worked to "create safer conditions," it closed on March 24. He stated the staff will move.
In-N-Out has approximately 400 locations in California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, Texas, Oregon, and Colorado.
According to the Chronicle, there have been over 1,300 police incidents near the In-N-Out branch since 2019, more than any other Oakland site. Car break-ins, a major city safety problem, accounted for nearly 1,200 police encounters.
Oakland has the most motor vehicle theft per person in America, according to a 2019 FBI report.
This issue has plagued the Bay Area so badly that the Chronicle created a Car Break-in tracker to track the most common regions with break-ins and attempts since 2018.