A man climbed out through a shattered window at Bear Pit BBQ in Mission Hills late Sunday night after Los Angeles police officers surrounded the San Fernando Valley barbecue landmark with their guns drawn, ordering him to lie on the ground before taking him into custody without further incident.
Los Angeles Police Department officers were called to the restaurant at about 10:45 p.m. after a burglary was reported, according to KTLA. A large glass window above a planter near the entrance had been shattered, and the suspect remained inside the restaurant as officers arrived. Bear Pit BBQ was closed for the night when police got there, per an LAPD spokesperson cited in the report.
Video from Citizen.com showed officers with their weapons drawn as they ordered the unidentified suspect to exit the building. He complied by breaking additional glass and climbing through the window, tossing out several items — including a backpack and a metal bar — before he was ordered to lie on the ground. He was taken into custody without further incident, and it remained unclear whether anything had been stolen or whether additional damage occurred inside the restaurant, the outlet reported.
A Mission Hills Institution Since the 1950s
The burglary struck one of the San Fernando Valley's oldest surviving roadside barbecue joints. Bear Pit BBQ was originally founded in the late 1940s in Newhall before relocating to Mission Hills in 1954, according to Wikipedia. The restaurant sits today at 10825 Sepulveda Boulevard near the 118 Freeway, marking what the Los Angeles Times has described as “Mile One” at the northern start of Sepulveda Boulevard.
The neighborhood itself predates its current name — the area was historically known as Dennis Park before mid-20th century suburban growth led to its rebranding as Mission Hills, per background compiled by PBS SoCal. Bear Pit BBQ has been serving Missouri-style pit barbecue there since at least 1956, a history significant enough that the Los Angeles Department of City Planning's SurveyLA Historic Context Statement lists the restaurant as a notable historic commercial landmark.
Family Ownership Spanning Nearly Five Decades
The restaurant has stayed in the same family for close to half a century. Burton and Shirley Schatz acquired Bear Pit BBQ in 1976, and their son Andrew Schatz took over ownership in 1988, continuing to operate the Mission Hills landmark using traditional hardwood pit smoking, according to Wikipedia's entry on the business.
Part of a Wider Pattern of Commercial Break-Ins
The break-in adds to a wave of commercial property crime that LAPD's Mission Division, which oversees Mission Hills and the surrounding northern San Fernando Valley, has been contending with in recent years. The division investigated a 2024 series of commercial ATM burglaries that led to four arrests, according to LAPD Online.
Statewide, retail theft — a category combining shoplifting and commercial burglary — rose 3% in 2024 and remained 22.8% above pre-pandemic 2019 levels, per an analysis from the Public Policy Institute of California. Separately, an analysis of LAPD open data found 52,673 retail and business crime incidents recorded across Los Angeles between January 2020 and December 2024, according to Guardian Integrated Security.
What Charges Could Look Like
Under California Penal Code Section 459, commercial burglary is classified as a “wobbler” offense, meaning prosecutors can charge it as either a felony carrying up to three years in prison or a misdemeanor carrying up to one year in county jail, according to the Shouse California Law Group. Notably, the statute does not require forced entry or property damage to secure a conviction — prosecutors need only prove criminal intent existed at the moment of entry, per legal analysis from Eisner Gorin LLP.
It remains unclear whether the suspect taken into custody Sunday night will face felony or misdemeanor charges, or whether LAPD's investigation will turn up evidence that anything was taken from the restaurant. Those determinations will likely depend on what detectives uncover as they continue investigating the break-in at one of Mission Hills' longest-running businesses.
