The In-N-Out Burger location on Oakport Street in East Oakland, Calif., is set to permanently close in March because of an unrelenting surge in crime that includes car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies, according to the company’s chief operating officer Denny Warnick.
Warnick’s full statement reads:
We have made the decision to close our In-N-Out Burger location in Oakland, California, due to ongoing issues with crime. Despite taking repeated steps to create safer conditions, our Customers and Associates are regularly victimized by car break-ins, property damage, theft, and armed robberies. Our last day of business in Oakland will be Sunday, March 24, 2024.
We are grateful for the local community, which has supported us for over 18 years, and we recognize that this closure negatively impacts our Associates and their families. Additionally, this location remains a busy and profitable one for the company, but our top priority must be the safety and wellbeing of our Customers and Associates – we cannot ask them to visit or work in an unsafe environment.
All affected Associates will have the opportunity to transfer to a nearby In-N-Out location or, alternatively, receive a severance package.
In-N-Out Burger has a history of supporting the Oakland community through charitable giving that predates the opening of our location there. Although we will no longer do business there, we will continue to support local charitable organizations in Oakland through our In-N-Out Burger Foundation and Slave 2 Nothing Foundation.
Police data record 1,335 incidents since 2019, making the area around the In-N-Out restaurant the most crime-afflicted location in Oakland. The neighborhood has gained notoriety as a hot spot for stickups and smash-and-grabs. A nearby Shell gas station is known to be a potentially dangerous spot for tourists and locals alike. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that an eyewitness and friends “were driving by the diner when they saw a car pull up to the drive-thru line. Two people jumped out and methodically went from vehicle to vehicle, robbing people at gunpoint.”
City officials, including Mayor Sheng Thao and council member Treva Reid, claim to be addressing safety concerns along Hegenberger Road, a main route from the airport to I-880. Recent measures include foot patrols and surveillance cameras. However, reported robberies have ticked upward.
Law enforcement identifies as potential targets drivers of rental cars and tourists with out-of-state plates, who are particularly vulnerable while filling up at gas pumps or rushing into fast-food eateries, leaving belongings unattended. Incidents often start as auto burglaries and escalate into robberies. The landscape and the fact that Hegenberger Road provides easy freeway access facilitate criminal escape routes.
The Oakland closure is seemingly the first permanent shuttering of a location in the history of In-N-Out. The restaurant chain temporarily closed its Contra Costa County dining rooms because of stringent vaccine-card requirements imposed by the local government — and the county then forced a pair of locations to close indefinitely after some back and forth — but those restaurants have since reopened.
“We refuse to become the vaccination police for any government. It is unreasonable, invasive, and unsafe to force our restaurant associates to segregate customers into those who may be served and those who may not,” In-N-Out had said in a statement at the time.