Broken windows and burglarized businesses aren’t exactly unusual in Eureka, but a rash of crime along F Street in downtown Eureka over the past few days has been particularly unsettling. 

Early Friday morning, some jerk threw a Molotov cocktail at Sangha Tattoo Studio’s new location. Hours later, in what is believed to be an unrelated incident, it was discovered that a separate jerk broke into the Eureka Theater and stole a laptop. Also, in that same general time period, another-or-possibly-the-same jerk tried to break into Dalianes Travel but was unable to gain entry into the business.

Jackie Silva, body piercer and co-owner of Sangha, told the Outpost she got a call from Advanced Security Systems around 1:50 a.m. on Friday notifying her that the motion sensor had gone off and the building was on fire. 

“I literally jumped out of bed in my robe and pajamas, threw shoes on and hauled down to the shop,” she said. “At that point, I was just thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, my livelihood is on the line – our livelihoods are all on the line.’ When I got there I saw flames, shattered glass and smoke had just engulfed the whole shop. …You hear about businesses getting broken into but something to this extent is devastating. It’s so surreal.”

Humboldt Bay Fire and the Eureka Police Department responded to the scene. EPD Captain Brian Stephens confirmed that “some type of device containing an accelerant” was thrown at the building. “We located evidence at the scene that indicates this was a targeted event, not just a random act,” he added.

Spray painted on the sidewalk in front of Sangha is a note that appears to say, “3 years fix my tattoo.” When asked if any disgruntled customers came to mind, Silva said, “We have absolutely no idea.”

(See more of the damage done to Sangha Tattoo in the embedded Instagram post at the end of this article.)

“We have no idea who would’ve written that or if they even have a legitimate beef,” she said. “We’ve been turning it over in our heads trying to think of who could have done this to our shop, who would have had a problem. I mean, we stand by our work. If anyone has ever been unhappy with something we will do everything we can to correct it, to make sure that at the end of the day that person gets taken care of and they walk out our door extremely happy. We’re very accomodating to our clients and our reputation in the community is super positive.”

Had the fire spread, it could have impacted the neighboring businesses, she added. “If this was personal, whoever did this did not take into consideration that we are not the only ones that got impacted. We have neighbors who have been there for years and their livelihoods could have been taken as well.”

The fire did not spread far beyond the entrance but there is extensive smoke damage throughout the shop.

“New Life Service Co. boarded everything up for us yesterday and set up fans and ozone generators to run over the weekend to get the smoke smell out of there,” Silva said. “The next step is for them to come in and do a cleanup because they’re trained for this kind of thing. It’s super critical that every single bit of soot is cleaned up because this is a tattoo and piercing shop and we have to be able to maintain a sterile environment. …Unfortunately until then, none of us can work so we’re all financially impacted.”

Randy Meyer, tattoo artist and co-owner of Sangha, thanked the community for their support during this difficult time and said any information leading to the culprit could earn someone a free tattoo.

“A couple of people from the shop have offered up free tattoos for information,” he said. “We would gladly help anyone with a tattoo that can provide any viable leads to who did this.”

Fast forward to 9:40 a.m. when EPD responded to a reported break in at the Eureka Theater.

“We got called to come down and do a security check of the building,” Stephens said. “I think it was reported initially as a broken door but it ended up being a broken window. Our officers went and cleared the building. They did locate another broken window on the third story. The responsible told us that the only thing taken was a laptop from the projection room.”

It is believed the suspect broke into the theater from the third story window.

“The assumption is that someone got all the way up a solid concrete building, which was a feat of persistence and strength if nothing else,” Gregg Foster, president of the Eureka Theater board of directors, told the Outpost. “They broke into the projection room and took the laptop, which was not alarmed. We don’t know this for sure, but we think they came down the stairs to the second floor lobby and that’s when the alarm went off. It’s pretty loud so they probably ran downstairs and broke out one of the windows of the interior doors so they could get out.”

Thankfully, the historic etched glass was not damaged, he added. 

“We were just really fortunate that they look like they’re more interested in getting the heck out of the building rather than trashing the place or trying to find another thing to steal,” he said. “The unfortunate thing is we rely upon donations, revenue and grants to restore the building and now we’re going to be spending more money on upgrading our alarm system, getting interior cameras and fixing our windows.”

EPD, with assistance from the Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office K-9 unit, responded to the theater this morning after the alarm was tripped again but it looks as though it was a fluke.

“We found no signs of forced entry into the building this morning so we’re not sure what set that alarm off,” Stephens said. “It’s a very large old building and sometimes doors could swing open or something could trip the motion alarm on the inside today. We found no signs that anything was taken or tampered with.”

The Eureka Theater hosted the premiere of The Craftsman on Friday night, a new series featuring Eric Hollenbeck, the owner of local business Blue Ox Millworks. Foster said the latch on the door is “kinda funky” and could have been disturbed during the event. “The door could have blown open. Nothing was disturbed, nothing was touched.”

There was an attempted break in at Dalianes Travel just down the street from the theater on Friday morning as well. Stephens said the alarm went off but the suspect was unable to gain entry into the businesses.

It is unlikely that the incidents are related, but Stephens encouraged community members to contact EPD with any information about the aforementioned incidents.

“If anybody has seen anything suspicious or were in the area at the time of these incidents, please just give us a call and let us know what you’ve seen,” he said. “This could be anything from someone walking away [from the scene of the incident] and which direction they went so we can try to find additional surveillance cameras that may catch them.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Eureka Police Department at (707) 441-4044.