Oakland Latino LGBTQ club broken into for 11th time

Oakland LGBTQ Latino nightclub Que Rico has been broken into for the 11th time, the owner told the Bay Area Reporter May 2. The latest incident was caught on the club’s Ring video Tuesday.

“We just got dropped by insurance two months ago,” Valentino Carrillo, a gay man, said in exasperation. “Even if we hadn’t, it wouldn’t have mattered.”

The most recent break-in happened April 29.

“Basically, about 2:40 or so in the morning, I received a notification on my Ring device – our backup camera and security – that there was someone in the office, and as soon as I saw that, I thought, ‘Not again. Here we go.’”

That’s because, as the B.A.R. reported last year, the downtown business at 381 15th Street had been broken into 10 times in recent years.

“They ended up taking our ATM, did $5,000 worth of damage and stole a ton of liquor,” Carrillo said of this week’s burglary.

Police were at the scene within 10 minutes, but the perpetrators had already fled.

Oakland police officials stated they are investigating the incident.

“The Oakland Police Department (OPD) is investigating a commercial burglary that occurred on April 29, 2025, in the 300 block of 15th Street, shortly before 3:00 a.m.,” an Oakland Police Department spokesperson stated in an email. “When officers arrived, they learned that multiple individuals used an object to gain entry into a business. Once inside, the individuals took several items before fleeing the area.”

Carrillo has his own video, in which there appear to be two suspects, a male and a female.

“We were hoping someone may be able to ID the people in the video,” he said. “The girl looks easier to ID.”

Carrillo said anyone who wants to help fundraise for the recovery should swing by Tuesday, May 6, for “Tacos for a Cause,” from 6 to 10 p.m. Anyone interested in donating can contribute to the club’s GoFundMe page, which has raised $0 of a $2,600 goal as of press time.

Carrillo said he’s exhausted about the break-ins happening again and again.

“Each time it happens, we've fortified the building more each time,” he said. “We used to have beautiful windows in front of the building, where you can see out and in. We’ve had to board up the windows and the doors. It’s pretty frustrating this keeps happening.”

Carrillo opened Que Rico in 2021, as the B.A.R. reported. It came a year after the closure of Club 21, which at the time was the last bar in the Bay Area catering to Latino LGBTQs.

Last August, a few weeks after the 10th break-in at the club, Carrillo held a street festival outside the establishment that was a community benefit.

Carrillo did praise the police’s attention to the matter this week.

“We’ve had great response from the police,” he said.

Oakland District 3 Councilmember Carroll Fife, whose district includes the bar, and queer Councilmember at-large Rowena Brown didn’t immediately return requests for comment for this report.

The ongoing security issue for the club comes as Oakland Mayor-elect Barbara Lee prepares to take office and plans to convene a Public Safety Working Group to advise her during her transition period and 100 days in the office. Friday Lee announced that former Oakland city attorney Barbara J. Parker, the first African American woman elected to citywide office in Oakland, would serve as a senior adviser for her Transition Committee.

Serving as transition director is gay former Port of Oakland executive director Danny Wan, an attorney who was the first LGBTQ person elected to the Oakland City Council. With a professional career that has spanned being a public school teacher and the city attorney for Morgan Hill in the South Bay and public service as an East Bay Municipal Utility District director and gubernatorial appointee to the Sierra Nevada Conservancy, Wan lives in the Jingletown neighborhood with his partner, Oliver.

Lee also named 13 members serving on her Transition Committee. They will join the previously announced co-chairs Barbara Leslie, who is president and CEO of the Oakland Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce, and Keith Brown, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda Labor Council.

“Oaklanders demand – and deserve – transparency, accountability, and results. With the help of these dynamic leaders and residents, this is what we will deliver together,” stated Lee. “For all of Oakland, I want to thank those who have agreed to serve – and am filled with gratitude for your leadership and support, which will help Oakland turn the next chapter.”

Anyone with information on the Que Rico break-in is urged to contact the OPD Burglary Section at (510) 238-3951. Additionally, if people have any videos or photos that could assist with the investigation, police request that they be sent to [email protected].