Bay Area police probe hate crime in LGBT center burglaries

CONCORD, Calif. (AP) — An LGBT community center in the San Francisco Bay Area has been repeatedly burglarized over the past two weeks, with police labeling the latest attack a hate crime.

The East Bay Times reports (http://bit.ly/2fehlRT) Tuesday that thieves broke into the Rainbow Community Center of Contra Costa, in the East Bay city of Concord, four times in the past two weeks.

Center Executive Director Ben Barr says that in the first three incidents the burglars broke doors, locks and stole lap tops, flash drives, a cash box and fraudulently charged $10,000 on three stolen credit cards.

Officials say police are treating the last attack as a hate crime because the burglars also scrawled homophobic graffiti on the outside of the building, the newspaper reported.

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Information from: Contra Costa Times, http://www.contracostatimes.com

Copyright 2016 The Gayly - 11/1/2016 @ 5:09 p.m. CDT