Kenmore auto shop left with thousands of dollars in damages, stolen tools after burglary

A family-owned auto shop in Kenmore is left with thousands of dollars in damages and stolen tools.

According to the King County Sheriff’s Office, thieves broke into Leo’s Auto Repair and Service around 4 a.m. on Saturday morning.

“Now we have to start from zero,” said Carolina Hernandez, who owns the shop with her husband, Leobardo.

Surveillance video shows the thieves cutting a side gate to get in and then loading up the Hernandez’s work truck with tools.

“All his tools. I mean everything that he’s worked for, for so long,” she said.

In just a matter of minutes, the burglars took off with the filled truck and a customer’s car.

“All of our savings went to get this thing open, buy tools, get everything that we need. And now it’s all gone,” Hernandez explained.

They opened the shop up just before the pandemic. After working years to get this shop up and running, she says it feels like they must rebuild from the ground up.

“What they did is wrong, you know. It’s easy for them to come in and take, but they don’t think what’s behind it. This is a family.”

The owner tells me she’s taken aback to be targeted by a crime like this.

“It’s surprising that this happened here because we feel like this community is very united, they’re very supportive,” Hernandez explained.

Despite the damage done, Hernandez says all they can do is keep moving forward.

“We just have to look at it, turn the page and say OK. There really is no other way to do it. We just have to keep going.”

King County sheriff’s deputies are investigating the burglary.

If you’d like to help Leo’s Auto Repair and Service, they have set up a GoFundMe here.