Scooter-riding suspect apprehended in $5,000 safe theft at Hayes Valley's Doppio Zero

Scooter-riding suspect apprehended in $5,000 safe theft at Hayes Valley's Doppio ZeroOutside Doppio Zero. | Photo: Andrew D./Yelp
Saul Sugarman
Published on February 18, 2020

A suspect in the burglary of Hayes Valley pizzeria Doppio Zero — where a safe containing $5,000 was stolen earlier this month — has been arrested. 

Nicholus Summers, 41, was arrested Thursday in connection to the Feb. 2 burglary of the pizza restaurant at 395 Hayes St., which occurred around 4 a.m. 

On Twitter, SFPD investigations commander Raj Vaswani called Summers a “serial commercial burglar," linking him to local break-ins dating back to Sept. 2019. He also noted that Summers was currently on probation for another burglary.

Police used footage captured by Doppio Zero — first released by KGO — to identify the suspect. The footage shows a person in a baseball hat and black mask breaking a padlocked door handle off the pizzeria's rear entrance, then fleeing with the sealed safe.

A neighboring business' surveillance camera captured the thief leaving the scene, on what appears to be a rented electric scooter.

“It’s a little funny because of the easy way he did it,” general manager Gabriele Modica told Hoodline on Friday. “He just arrived, and about 10 seconds later, he left with the safe.”

Modica said that police had recovered some items from inside the safe, but “nothing of value." The cash box that was once inside the safe, which had contained the $5,000, was found empty.

Doppio Zero is not the only Hayes Street business to have been targeted this month. Last week, a post in the Hayes Valley Society Facebook group showed Yoga Tree (519 Hayes St.) with a smashed window.

Smashed window at Hayes Valley's Yoga Tree. | Photo: Hayes Valley Society/Facebo

Modica said the break-in earlier this month was not Doppio Zero’s first “wake-up call” to suspicious activity in the neighborhood. The restaurant once kept a key stored in an exterior lockbox for vendors to access when they needed it. Someone tried and failed to break into it, scorching the lockbox in the process, so the restaurant got rid of it.

“This is a very busy area, and one of the most vibrant neighborhoods in the city,” Modica said.

“We always give our customers the benefit of the doubt. But we need to keep our eyes open for these people who are looking for the opportunity to steal as soon as they have it.”