Beloved Oakland Donut Shop Robbed But Community Swoops in to Support

Dick’s Donuts on High Street in Oakland was robbed by a regular customer on Thursday of last week in broad daylight. During a brief quiet moment in an otherwise busy morning, a man came into Dick’s Donuts, broke down the plastic barrier on the counter and took the entire register before running out the door. The owner, Sovanna Chan stood in shock for a moment before she eventually called 911. She said police didn’t come that day and that they lost over $1,300 in cash.

View of the robbery in progress – photo from video footage of the event at Dick’s Donuts

For more than two decades, Chan and her husband have been the proud owner of Dick’s Donuts. While the robbery was shocking and the loss of money impacted her business, of course, the robbery was a regular which made the situation all that more terrible.

After the robbery, the community has been coming out in full support of Chan and Dick’s Donuts. Multiple days in a row they have been completely sold out and Chan even gave a little update the other day sharing the new apron Oakland Fire Department gave her when they came to support the small business. The community has also raised over $5,000 via a GoFundMe account.

@sovannascooking Thank you everyone for your support. #fypforyou #oaklandfirefighters @sovanna ♬ original sound – sovanna

Dick’s isn’t the only donut shop that’s been hit in The Bay. Colonial Donuts was hit by a robbery 3 times since last summer. Back in October, Happy Donuts in SF was also robbed. Then, in Petaluma, Kenny’s Donuts was also recently burglarized. But this isn’t just donut shops being hit. According to USAFacts.org, larceny-theft have been on the rise since 2022, and those are just the crimes that are being reported…

Watch What Happened

When I first saw the video I was also in shock. It’s a tiny little donut shop. Why a donut shop?! And why would a regular want to hurt a business they come to often? Just feels sad and disappointing when a small business is attacked like this. You can see in the video below that it all happened in a flash.

A view of the robbery shown on KRON 4’s Youtube account:

How to support Dick’s:
Visit the shop! Dick’s Donuts is at 3417 High St, Oakland, CA
Donate to Dick’s Donut’s GoFundMe 
Chan has actually has some success on TikTok sharing her recipes – she has millions of views but giving her a few more likes will help continue to lift her spirits after the robbery. Her TikTok is @sovannascooking