Binchoyaki's lock was drilled out before dawn Thursday, and the people who run the Japanese restaurant say Sacramento police never came. By the owners' count, it was the fifth break-in in a decade at a place they still want to keep in historic Japantown.
The restaurant at 2226 10th St. was broken into early Nov. 12, The Sacramento Bee reported, with owners Tokiko Sawada and Craig Takehara saying police declined to respond. Police told the Bee they received an alarm activation just before 5:15 a.m. in the 2200 block of 10th Street and had gotten no additional calls or reports about the incident. A department spokesperson also said the restaurant's alarm permit was not in good standing.
A Drilled Lock, and a Search
Takehara, who owns Binchoyaki at 10th and W streets, told KCRA that two people drilled through the keyhole. He said they ran through the restaurant looking for things, and he believes the alarm scared them off.
"It actually wasn't as bad as before because they didn't break any windows, but they did drill out the lock, and they ran through the restaurant and tried to find some stuff," Takehara told KCRA. The Bee reported that, aside from damage to the door, it didn't appear anything else was taken. That is an observation from the scene, not a finished inventory.
The Alarm Arrived. The Officers Did Not.
The alarm did what an alarm is supposed to do: it reached the Sacramento Police Department. What it did not produce, by the owners' account, was a patrol car.
Takehara said the alarm company told him police would not respond because his alarm permit had expired, and that officers still had not shown up after he went to the restaurant. He also said police had responded to the restaurant's earlier break-ins. That expired-permit explanation is what he says the alarm company told him. It is not a reason the department has confirmed.
KCRA reported that police did not address why officers did not respond. The department said it handles alarm activations according to established policies and procedures. At 5:30 p.m. Thursday, police contacted KCRA to say they were coordinating with Binchoyaki to document the incident in a report. The official next step, hours after a drilled-out lock, was paperwork.
Sacramento's city code is blunt about the permit itself. A person may not use an alarm system unless the person who owns or controls the property holds a valid alarm user permit. The permit lasts one year from issuance, and the application has to come with a nonrefundable fee. The code passage does not list a current dollar amount, and it does not say that a lapsed permit cancels a police response. Police have confirmed the permit was not in good standing. They have not said that status is why nobody came.
Ten Years, and a Front Door That Keeps Taking the Hit
On social media, quoted by the Bee, the restaurant put the tally in capital letters: "We've been here for 10 years, and this is now the FIFTH time we've been broken into."
The recent history is not abstract. CapRadio reported that in April 2025 Binchoyaki had been broken into and vandalized twice in two weeks. Takehara told KCRA those back-to-back break-ins damaged the restaurant's front. Thursday's intruders skipped the windows. The lock did not get the same courtesy.
He told KCRA he hopes to remain in Sacramento's historic Japantown and encouraged people to support Binchoyaki and other small businesses by dining out. Supporting local businesses, he said, can help improve the area and let the restaurant keep making good food.
Police, in the same KCRA reporting, encouraged business owners and community members to report criminal activity so the department can identify patterns and address public-safety concerns. For this break-in, the pattern the owners can already count is local and specific: five times in 10 years, a door damaged again, an alarm logged just before 5:15 a.m., and a report being assembled that evening instead of officers at the lock.
