Motorists slowed to gawk at the L.A. County sheriff’s deputies milling around a tire shop in Compton and the large words spray-painted in black across the front of the business: “Dear customers due to SNITCHES no burnin out,” and in Spanish, “no quema” — no burning.
One of the dozen deputies standing outside the business on Rosecrans Avenue — some in khaki uniforms, others in plainclothes with bulletproof vests over their sweatshirts and T-shirts – told a Times reporter on Tuesday they were assisting the city with a “routine inspection.”
Asked about the message left on the wall, the deputy said, “I don’t know anything about that.”
Bernardo Lopez, who owns the tire shop with his mother, told The Times he wrote the message himself after learning city officials were investigating his business on suspicion of selling tires to street racers who have taken over intersections to perform burnouts and other illegal maneuvers.
Lopez, who says he cannot control what customers do with their tires, said it was out of sheer frustration that he grabbed a can of spray-paint and scrawled across the front of his own shop a message for street racers to stay away.
“We tell the kids, ‘Don’t do burnouts here,’” Lopez’s 60-year-old mother, Natalia, said in Spanish, sitting on a folding chair between tall stacks of used tires at the business named after her grandson. “Go somewhere else. We don’t want the noise. We make an honest living.”
The dispute at Jeffrey’s Tires and Rims, which the city ordered this week to shut down for code violations, is the latest flashpoint in the authorities’ crackdown on street takeovers, an issue that has angered many residents and business owners in Compton, who note the perpetrators who block traffic and perform dangerous stunts also vandalize and loot nearby businesses.
Last month, a crowd attending a takeover at El Segundo Boulevard and Santa Fe Avenue swarmed Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food, ramming a Kia Soul through the front door before ransacking the 40-year-old, family-owned business. Sheriff’s deputies arrested the alleged driver of the Kia, a 13-year-old boy. Hours after being released from custody, the teen was arrested trying to rob a 7-Eleven in Carson, authorities said.
Three weeks after Ruben’s Bakery & Mexican Food was looted, four people were shot — none fatally — at a takeover at Alondra Boulevard and Central Avenue. Authorities reported five other sideshows that same night in Compton and South Los Angeles.
The issue has become so severe in Compton that the captain of the city’s sheriff substation called it “the mecca of street takeovers.”
In a statement to The Times, a spokesperson for the City of Compton said, “We assure the public that we are actively monitoring the situation and exploring all necessary measures to address concerns related to street takeovers and illegal street racing within our community.”
The city declined further comment, citing an ongoing investigation.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department did not respond to questions from The Times about Jeffrey’s Tires.
A law enforcement source, who wasn’t authorized to speak to the media and requested anonymity, said Jeffrey’s Tires was suspected of installing old, worn-out tires on street racers’ cars so they wouldn’t damage their everyday tires when they did burnouts.
Bernardo and Natalia Lopez denied this. They only sold used tires that were in good working order, they said, and when they changed a customer’s tires, they disposed of the old ones and did not resell them.
The mother and son have owned the shop, located between a Chevron and the Rose Motel near Rosecrans and Wilmington avenues, for about a year and a half. Business used to be good, Bernardo Lopez said, because they sold used tires for $45 apiece, unlike “greedy” shops in the area that charge $60 or more.
They acknowledged some of their customers were street racers. Bernardo Lopez believes the city began to investigate his shop after seeing its stickers on cars at sideshows; he distributes the stickers in exchange for discounts as a marketing strategy, he said.
Yes, they used to stay open late — until 3 a.m. — but so do most tire shops in Compton, Natalia Lopez said, noting some operate 24 hours a day.
Natalia Lopez said she and her son should not be held responsible for what customers do with the tires they sell. “When people come to buy, customers, we have to sell to them,” she said. “We can’t make assumptions.”
For now, the city is not cracking down on the business for selling tires to street racers, but for code violations — operating without a business license and unsafe conditions, including the tires heaped in the driveway, according to a notice from the city’s code enforcement department.
When code and fire inspectors showed up at the business on Tuesday, they were accompanied by so many sheriff’s deputies that Natalia Lopez fainted, according to surveillance footage and paperwork from her hospital admittance for high blood pressure.
“All the emotions, the fear — I couldn’t stand it,” she said.
Last week, the Los Angeles Police Department’s street racing task force, which works alongside the Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol, arrested “one of the largest street takeover organizers in Southern California,” according to a news release. Authorities alleged Erick Romero Quintana, 20, who boasts over 70,000 social media followers, has coordinated events that have resulted in robberies, vehicle thefts and other violent crime. His arrest, officials said, was significant for the entirety of Southern California.
Natalia Lopez and her son say they believe the Sheriff’s Department is unfairly singling out their business, hoping to find evidence of crimes committed by others.
“I always invite them,” she said. “If you think we’re doing something, come. The door’s open.”
A few months ago, an irate customer accused the shop’s employees of scratching his car’s rims while changing a tire, brandishing a rifle as he demanded a $1,000 refund, Natalia Lopez said. She called the Sheriff’s Department, she said, but when two deputies showed up, they detained and questioned her son.
She said before they left, the deputies told her: “We’re going to come back because we know what you’re doing here.”
Then there was the time deputies tracked two stolen cars to the gas station next door — and a third one that a customer brought to the shop, Bernardo Lopez said. The deputies wanted to know who drove the stolen car to his shop. When he said he didn’t know, they arrested him on suspicion of receiving stolen property, he said. He denied having anything to do with the stolen car and hasn’t been charged with a crime.
“At this point,” he said, “I think it’s personal.”
A new message went up Wednesday outside Jeffrey’s Tires. This one wasn’t spray-painted on the walls, but written on a white piece of cardboard: “Dear customers, thanks to Compton Sheriff Dep. harassing Jeffrey’s Tires, we are going to be closed til further notice. Sorry for the inconvenience.”
This story originally appeared on LA Times
