Lili R.
Yelp
I live really close to this bar and it was probably my favorite spot to go to, until a terrible experience this past Friday night. After being inside for about an hour I made my way across the bar with a friend and felt someone very inappropriately groping me. I brushed it off as some creep at the time, but about ten minutes later I realized it had been someone pickpocketing me. I altered security outside the venue immediately, and discovered there were already several other girls who had reported their phones and wallets stolen to the bouncer. A couple bouncers told us that they had apprehended a man who had thrown down a few wallets, but after finding nothing else on him they let him go. At this point we could tell that our phones were more than likely still inside the bar, thanks to tracking apps, so we asked the staff how we could all work together to hopefully get our phones back. Staff kept assuring us that they were 'taking care of it,' but it was obvious they couldn't care less. They claimed to have blocked off the back exit, to prevent the thief from leaving, and that they were checking people who left the front entrance, since it was the only way out. They weren't attempting to actually check anyone though, in fact the people hanging around trying to find their stolen property were yelled at by one of the bouncers for 'being in the way of the exit,' which felt ironic since they were supposed to be checking people who were exiting. The cops eventually did show up, but did absolutely nothing. At this point, close to 20 people had come outside and also reported that their phones had been taken. Again, this didn't seem to bother the bouncers at all, they truly couldn't care less. I'm sure others who have tried to seek help in these situations can relate, it was like talking to a brick wall. No matter how we tried to help or work with them, they treated us like a nuisance. Of course people were getting agitated at this point, and one of the female patrons got into a disagreement with one particular bouncer. He began screaming at her to 'shut the fuck up' etc. and shoved her out of the way. This particular bouncer was especially rude, showing favoritism to victims that he 'knew' or 'liked' and being extremely aggressive towards the rest of us. By now, we could tell there was no hope of finding our missing belongings, so most people just began to leave. The whole experience was ridiculous from start to finish. If this many people are being targeted in one night, who knows what kind of nefarious activity is truly going on here. Also, I think complaints of that volume warrant actual action, not lame excuses and dismissive attitudes. There is definitely something deeper at play here. The description of the thief was vague and unclear, the story the bouncers told us changed every time, and the weirdest thing was that after the bar closed they began bringing up a couple phones, one by one, that they had 'found' after the lights came up. Their original story of it being a couple who was running some kind of pickpocket scam started to feel so flimsy considering the fact that is was such a large number of stolen goods, and despite there only being one point of exit that the culprit(s) still managed to escape. Also want to point out that, to my knowledge, all the victims were women, and it was just one item stolen from groups of four of five girls, so perhaps we were being watched and targeted from the moment we entered the bar. Definitely do not recommend going here, not only do you risk being pickpocketed, you also risk being disgustingly groped on the dance floor, and/or being gaslit and belittled by staff after you've had a bad experience at their establishment. Totally and completely disappointing.
