Crafty burglar breaks into SLO County storage unit — and steals thousands of dollars of yarn
Cambria business owner Oz Barron went to his storage unit on Tuesday morning and discovered that someone had broken in and stolen eight to 10 big plastic storage bins full of top-quality yarn.
Really.
There are lots of unknowns about the bizarre burglary that will wind up costing Barron’s Ball & Skein & More shop between $6,000 and $8,000 — such as exactly when it happened.
According to Barron, neither he nor his wife and partner, Kris Gregson, had been to the unit on Village Lane for several weeks, so it’s not clear when the alleged burglary was.
Their popular yarn and fiber store is located in Cambria’s historic East Village district, less than a mile from the storage unit. While Ball & Skein’s official address is 4210 Bridge St., the store also fronts on Main Street.
Barron said it’s also unclear how the burglar got in. There was no apparent damage to the lock, hasp or door, he said, and no immediately obvious evidence outside the unit that a burglary had happened.
Cmdr. Justin Nelson of the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office said via email Wednesday that “the responding deputy could not find a point of entry, so it is unknown how they gained access.”
Nelson checked recent crime reports for Cambria and “did not find any additional reported burglaries on Village Lane,” where the storage units are, although there have been break-ins there in the more distant past.
According to Barron, the alleged burglar either had or found a key, or managed to pick the sturdy circle lock in a manner that didn’t leave marks. The locks are not absolutely unique, so it is possible that a key from another lock would fit Barron’s.
However, none of the options seem likely, Barron said.
Most importantly, what did a burglar want with all that yarn? Barron said the interloper left behind several other items that seemed more useful, including a heavy-duty hand truck, a desk lamp, a tower fan.
Given the clear sides on the storage containers, he added, it was easy to see what they contained: colorful skeins of Gedifra, Katia, Noro and Tahki Stacy brand yarns, among others.
“You knew you weren’t getting gold bullion,” Barron said wryly. “It was very obvious what they were getting, bags of yarn.”
Maybe the burglar knits, he conjectured, slightly tongue-in-cheek.
“It’s certainly a mystery to me, and it also seemed to be a mystery to the deputy” who took the report, he said.
Barron is trying to be philosophical about the puzzling crime. “It’s just stuff,” he said. “Ultimately nobody got hurt and the building wasn’t damaged.”
This story was originally published January 15, 2020 at 1:33 PM.
