Boba tea shop serves as front for global auto burglary ring, California officials say

A San Francisco boba tea shop served as the hub of an international fencing ring peddling electronics stolen in auto burglaries, California authorities reported.

More than 1,000 stolen electronics were recovered Monday, May 9, at Quickly Boba in the Tenderloin neighborhood, District Attorney Chesa Boudin said in a news release.

Quoc Le, 41, faces felony and misdemeanor charges of possessing stolen property, SFGate reported. His wife, who owns the boba tea shop, has not been charged.

An undercover auto burglary task force run by Boudin’s office uncovered the fencing operation by planting electronics with trackers in bait cars for thieves, the release said.

Items stolen in auto burglaries from as far away as Morgan Hill were tracked to the Quickly Boba, where they were resold, Boudin said.

Investigators discovered the operation when a stolen laptop was tracked to a parking lot where Le purchased it, then took it to the boba tea shop, the release said.

Further investigation found Le’s operation “involved shipping stolen goods to Southern California and internationally to countries like Vietnam and Hong Kong,” the release said.

“One of our biggest hopes is that this operation will deter future similar criminal activity,” Boudin said, KNTV reported. “We know that lots of people commit auto burglaries in San Francisco because they don’t fear they’ll be arrested.”

The DA’s office asks that anyone who believes they were an auto burglary victim fill out a form at www.sfdistrictattorney.org/auto-pilot to help determine if the property was recovered.

This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 11:09 AM with the headline "Boba tea shop serves as front for global auto burglary ring, California officials say."