Ruben's Bakery survived the pandemic but not the street takeover

Almost a decade after emigrating from Mexico, Rubén Ramírez Sr. and his wife, Alicia, had opened the business that would support their family for years to come.

It was the 70s and they started little by little. First it was a store that sold Mexican products. They later expanded to a Butcher shop – a meat market – and a bakery.

Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food in Compton was years in the making. But it was destroyed minutes before dawn on Tuesday. That’s when a mob of more than 100 people robbed the bakery during an illegal street takeover at the intersection of El Segundo Boulevard and North Santa Fe Avenue, according to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.

Ruben Ramirez Sr., 83, enters Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food Inc. in Compton while a worker makes repairs at his store on Jan. 4, 2024.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Surveillance video showed people taking cash registers, a variety of food and refrigerated items, and everything in their surroundings.

“We’ve been here 40 years,” said Rubén Ramírez Jr., 51. “We survived the Rodney King riots, the pandemic and other things that happen here and there. “I never thought this would happen to us.”

The estimated damage exceeds $70,000, an economic impact that will affect a business that had already been struggling since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, said Ramirez Jr. Beyond repairs, the business will not be well prepared as they go through their high season, including Three Kings Day, on Saturday.

“I have mixed feelings; “Sometimes I’m really angry, sometimes I’m sad,” said Ramirez Jr. “My dad is 83 years old. He’s the one who started it. And see him looking at the chaos we walked into. [Jan. 2]“That just broke my heart.”

Neighborhood residents said this week that although they are used to weekly street takeovers, complete with car donuts and burns, Tuesday’s rampage was like nothing they had seen before.

A man, left, wearing glasses and an olive green vest with the word Sheriff talks to a woman inside a store.

Deputy Miguel Meza, spokesman for the Sheriff’s Department, said authorities received calls at 3:25 a.m. of a “robbery in progress” at Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food, as well as a street seizure at the nearby intersection.

Meza said street takeovers involve a crowd of people blocking an intersection and using the area for street racing stunts. Tuesday’s crowd left skid marks on the road from car donuts and started a fire in the middle of the intersection, fueling it with dried Christmas trees that residents had left on the sidewalk.

Exterior surveillance video showed a white Kia Soul reversing toward the store’s door as the crowd surrounded the entrance. The vehicle hit the door two more times. A woman stood in front of the vandals and appeared to prevent people from entering the store by stretching her arms out and pushing them. Inside the store, the thieves piled food in their arms, rummaging through the shelves and counter.

After receiving a phone call from the store’s alarm company, Ramirez Jr. said he headed to the bakery about 25 minutes after the commotion. As he drove, he said, he saw baskets of groceries from the store lying in the street.

He arrived to find cash registers missing, stolen money, chips and groceries scattered on the floor.

“My stomach dropped,” he said.

Ramirez Jr. said he is grateful for the police’s quick response, noting that law enforcement officers were already on the scene when he arrived.

Meza said officers initially had difficulty reaching the scene due to blocked streets. However, Hugo Castillo, the store’s baker, said he had no problems getting to the establishment for his shift at the time of the robbery. Seeing the horde of people, Castillo said, he walked away from the business.

For the moment, Castillo is out of work until the store can open again. The violence that occurred does not move him, he said, because he has been assaulted and robbed before.

Josué González, a cashier at the General liquor store next door, also said he did not feel intimidated by the takeover, but expressed concern that his own establishment would not withstand the looting.

“I don’t think I’ll last” he said, pointing to the metal security doors. “I don’t think I’ll last.”

A woman in a black apron holds a can while standing in front of shelves full of cans of food.

Car donuts and burnouts are common in the neighborhood, which is divided by Santa Fe Avenue into Lynwood and Compton, said Geraldo Ortiz, a longtime resident.

Ortiz said on the Lynwood side, there have been calls for more street safety in recent years. Lately, he said, the community has been collecting signatures for a red light or stop sign at the intersection of Banning Avenue and Santa Fe, which is a block from where the street takeover took place on Tuesday.

Ortiz said he often stopped by Ruben’s Bakery on his way to work, where he would grab a bolillo and a cup of coffee.

Ramirez Jr. said the neighborhood has demonstrated behind the bakery since the looting. Members are pouring donations into the store’s GoFundMe account and writing comments like “We need those bobbins!!” and “Community supporting each other is a beautiful act of kindness.”

City officials are also contributing to the restoration.

“We need to support our local businesses and make sure criminals know that we will not tolerate the destruction of our beloved local establishments, which are the backbone of our city,” Compton City Councilman Andre Spicer said in a statement. . “Our office has donated supplies to the business, including paint to cover all the graffiti, helping them restore their store before Three Kings Day.”

His words have encouraged the family in a time of need. Normally, the business would have had about 100 orders for threads, a circular cake that is a traditional part of Three Kings’ Day celebrations. Now they’re baking as much as they can before Friday’s opening.

“Our goal for the future is to operate again as if it were December 31,” Ramírez Jr. said.