In recent weeks, two Korean American small business owners—one in Seattle and the other in Pasadena—shared strikingly similar stories of loss, fear, and resilience. Their stores were violently breached in a matter of minutes. Their livelihoods, built over years of sacrifice and hard work, were upended in seconds.
In Seattle’s Rainier Beach neighborhood, Andrew Choi, who has run a convenience store for 16 years to support his wife and two children, has been the target of two major crimes in just four months. Earlier this year, he faced an armed robbery. Then, in mid-June, thieves used a car and tow strap to rip the front door off his store and made off with shelves of merchandise.
“It feels like the American Dream has disappeared,” Choi told local news. Yet, he continues to reopen each morning, patching his broken doors with plywood and restoring order to a ransacked shop—because quitting is not an option when a family’s survival depends on you.
![Andrew Choi boards up the front door of his convenience store with plywood after it was damaged by thieves. [KING5 screenshot]](https://www.koreadailyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/0623-storefront.jpg)
Andrew Choi boards up the front door of his convenience store with plywood after it was damaged by thieves. [KING5 screenshot]
In Pasadena, Frank Kim, owner of Highlight Coffee, is reeling from his third break-in. Since opening in 2019, Kim has had to replace shattered glass and stolen cash boxes multiple times. His most recent intruder knew exactly where to go, prompting Kim to believe it may have been the same thief from previous incidents. Though Kim had taken preventative steps after earlier thefts, he now faces mounting repair costs that insurance won’t fully cover.
These are not isolated stories—they reflect a troubling pattern across urban neighborhoods, where small business owners, especially immigrants, find themselves on the front lines of rising crime. For many, these stores are not just a job. They are the embodiment of years of grit, risk-taking, and belief in the promise of a better life in America.
But that promise is now hanging by a thread. Public officials and law enforcement must do more than offer sympathy after the fact. They must prioritize the safety of small businesses, increase patrols in vulnerable commercial corridors, and allocate resources for crime prevention infrastructure like shatterproof windows, security systems, and rapid response.
If these basic guarantees of safety cannot be met, the American Dream risks becoming just that—a dream—out of reach for those who have already sacrificed the most to achieve it.
By Mooyoung Lee [lee.mooyoung@koreadaily.com]
