Arcade owner “rips apart” homeless camp to find stolen X-Men machine
An arcade owner in San Bernardino, California took matters into his own hands after police said they couldn’t help him when his business was ransacked by thieves.
Will Luna’s Extraordinaire Arcade was looted on Wednesday night just before Thanksgiving when he locked up his business to close for the holiday.
Reports statedthat a woman, who’d been hiding in the arcade’s attic, unlocked the doors for her accomplices to enter the shop and ransack the place, making off with anything that wasn’t tied down — including a four-playerX-Menarcade cabinet.
“They were just in there, in and out. They had a free-for-all,” Luna said in astatement to the New York Post.
The thieves even made off with the arcade’s surveillance cameras, as well as a card reader, register, gaming consoles, and snacks. But not all was lost; a homeless person alerted Luna that they’d spotted an arcade cabinet at a nearby homeless encampment.
Arcade owner discovers stolen merchandise in homeless camp
Determined to retrieve his belongings, Luna began going through the encampment on his own, discovering a slew of his stolen merchandise.
“I just went through all their tents. I started knocking that sh*t down,” he said. “I was ripping all the tents up. And I start finding my stuff.”
Despite the evidence at hand, Luna said that police weren’t able to help him, claiming they weren’t legally allowed to search the tents as it “violated homeless rights.”
However, they were able to work out a compromise with Luna — they couldn’t legally search through the tents, but he could.
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“They said, ‘We can’t go inside, but you can.’ So I did. I kept tearing that sh*t down,” he explained.
While Luna managed to recover some circuit boards, as well as gaming accessories and snacks, he didn’t find the most valuable items that had been looted, which includedPlayStation 5andNintendo Switchconsoles, and, sadly, his X-Men arcade cabinet.
His wasn’t the only business affected by the looting, either. Reports stated that a salon next door was also ransacked, with thieves stealing the cash register, breaking a window, and setting the place on fire.
Luna says he felt “violated,” estimating that the thieves have cost him around $12,000 in total damages.
