Good Karma Bikes started the year on a bummer when a thief broke into the shop on Lincoln Avenue in Willow Glen early in the morning on Jan. 2 and stole thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise.

Less than two hours later the local nonprofit was hit again when the thief returned looking for more goods to take.

Jim Gardner, Good Karma’s CEO, said he was awakened just before 5 a.m. by a call from the alarm company notifying him that the shop’s alarm had gone off.

“They ask if I want police dispatched and because it was a motion sensor…I knew something was wrong,” Gardner said in an interview.

San Jose police officers came out and took a report after surveying the damage, which included a smashed front door window. Gardner said he ran back home less than three miles away to grab some tools to repair the door when the thief struck again.

“It wasn’t even seven o’clock in the morning, I set the ADT alarm,” Gardner said. “I drive to my house to get my frame saw for the sheet plywood; less than an hour I’m gone and the ADT alarm goes off again.”

“That was a mistake (running home),” he added. “The thing that I learned about that is if we drop our guard for a minute, they’re going to come after us.”

The nonprofit lost at least $3,000 in merchandise, including five new bicycles donated from a corporate team building event and two used high-end Cannondale and Trek bikes. Good Karma has been targeted by thieves and vandals many times before, according to Gardner.

“We’ve had the window on our van smashed countless times, we’ve lost count,” he said. “They’ve broken into this building numerous times; this is by no means the first time–we’re experienced at being robbed.”

Because of the repeated incidents, Gardner had new sensors and other hardware installed since the robbery and is in the process of adding security cameras as well.

Although upgrading the shop’s security is another financial burden on top of the stolen merchandise, Gardner said it’s worth the expense.

“We’ve viewed this as a wake-up call, that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure,” he added.

The robbery also has taken money away from Good Karma’s mission: “The money we make selling these bikes…this goes to support our foster youth program,” Gardner said.

The only leads so far have come from Good Karma’s landlord, Barry Swenson Builder, which employs private security to monitor many properties in that area. According to Gardner, they have “a person of interest” but can’t say much more than that publicly.

The experience has been sad, said Gardner, whose purpose for starting Good Karma was to help former foster youths avoid the common pitfalls that lead to jail.

“The part that breaks my heart is they have messed up lives and they’re messing up their lives more by doing this,” he said. “This isn’t helping them; they’re having a rough time in life and to me it’s very clear that they’re making their time in life rougher.”

Good Karma is starting a donation drive for the security cameras on their website, goodkarmabikes.org.