SF bar target of wild extortion text involving bear spray, $20K

Hanson Li is reeling after a chaotic month of break-ins, vandalism and even an extortion attempt at Lazy Susan, Horsefeather and Last Rites in San Francisco.

Li, founder of Salt Partners — a restaurant group that manages big names like Saison, Humphrey Slocombe Ice Cream, Last Rites, Horsefeather and Lazy Susan, among others — said that Lazy Susan was broken into on Monday just days after its storefront was defaced. The burglars took off with cash, a laptop and a 50-pound safe.

“We’re lucky that they didn’t destroy more things,” Li told SFGATE. “We had the door reinforced and opened Lazy Susan hours after we got robbed.”

Li said that the burglary took place around 6 a.m. on Monday. An alarm system automatically alerted the San Francisco Police Department of the break-in, but police officers did not arrive in time to stop the individuals, Li said. After assessing the damages, Li estimates that the stolen items will cost the business about $4,000 in addition to another $2,000 to replace the storefront window vandalized last Wednesday. The door, which was pried open with a tool, had a damaged frame, and will likely cost another few thousand dollars to repair.  

The break-in was only the latest in a what has been a long month for the group. Li said his partner at Last Rites received an ominous text earlier this month from an unknown number that threatened to empty a whole can of bear spray at the bar unless they received $20,000 sent to a crypto wallet by Aug. 21. At first he was skeptical since the text reminded him of the extortion emails and ensuing one star Google ratings restaurateurs received last year. But he did feel uneasy that the scammer managed to contact his partner directly.

“We filed a police report almost immediately. There’s a lot of creative scams out there, but this one was physical in this nature,” he said.

Ultimately, Last Rites wasn’t targeted but Horsefeather — another Salt Partner-managed bar — was. The parklets at the bar, which had recently replaced the older pandemic version just last month, were defaced with multiple graffiti markings throughout. Li isn’t sure whether there was a connection between the extortion text and the damages made to Horsefeather.

“They took their time,” Li said of the vandals. “We just tore down our pandemic parklet and rebuilt two new parklets to the new code for Shared Spaces. We spent over $50,000 on the parklets.”

Li’s partner at Horsefeather spent last weekend scrubbing graffiti marks off the parklets and had them repainted by the end of Sunday. The outdoor seating spaces have been back in use since last weekend, but Li is overall frustrated by the series of crimes seen at Salt Partner-managed businesses. He added that all three San Francisco Humphrey Slocombe stores were burglarized this year alone.

“I was very heated [on Monday]. It’s like death by a thousand cuts. All these seemingly small things not only have actual dollar repercussions but then like the repairs are going to be two times what they took. Our operations weren’t affected because we hustled and opened the stores, but if we lost one day of sales, that’s another couple thousand dollars,” Li said. 

When asked if the businesses would take more preventative steps, Li shared that Lazy Susan could potentially add a metal gate to its entrance. He just hopes that more can be done in the city to prevent property damages made to businesses and that SFPD can find the perpetrators.