Recent burglary is the latest challenge for 77-year-old East Bay flower shop

ANTIOCH — The small two-story flower shop less than a mile from Antioch High, which Paula Franchetto-Trotta has operated since 2006 — a business that’s been in her family since 1947 — has seen its share of crises.

A recent burglary of Paula’s Family Florist at the corner of A and 15th streets seems a bit minor in comparison with a fire in 2017 and the fallout of the COVID pandemic in 2020. But it still hurts to see the video of the break-in, to confront the damage and loss in its wake.

“We’ve been through some things,” Franchetto-Trotta said last week, days after two suspects “crowbarred our back door” about 5 a.m. on Sept. 14.  “They were here for about a minute.”

https://youtu.be/I4q2jty1jv0

Franchetto-Trotta said the duo stole the store’s cash register and credit card machine and caused about $4,000 in damage. Adding to the stress of the situation, the family said, police did not arrive to answer their call for about seven hours.

It’s not the first time Antioch police have faced criticism for a slow response. In 2023, burglars invaded the Hillcrest Restaurant and Taphouse, and police took hours to respond; the city responded with a public apology from the police department and a pledge to increase staffing.

Police did not return emails from this organization seeking comment Friday.

“Our issue is that we’re all small businesses around here. If we don’t stand up for each other and for what will be tolerated and what won’t be, it’s just gonna keep happening,” Franchetto-Trotta said. “And nothing against police — they’ve always been great to us, and they’re dealing with shootings and other bigger things — it did take them seven hours to respond.”

The store still has operated under its normal hours since the burglary, though work on the damaged door has not been finished. In that sense, it’s been business as usual.

The shop has been owned by the Franchetto family since 1947. Paula’s mother, Mary, and her father, Bob, took over the day-to-day operations in 1967. Her 22-year-old daughter Paige works there now, and Paige’s three siblings all have been involved at some point along the way.

“Four generations,” Franchetto-Trotta said. “That makes us feel good.”

In those 70-plus years, the family says its greatest achievement may simply be its survival, quite a statement for a business named the East Bay Times’ best small business in the East Bay in 2023 and 2021, and Antioch’s small business of the year in 2014.

In 2017, a fire that started on cardboard near a garbage bin outside the shop eventually spread into the business and devoured it. The family rebuilt, and even as they did, operated the business out of Bob and Mary’s garage.

“I won’t forget how many families helped us,” Franchetto-Trotta said. “They brought coffee, doughnuts. They’d make purchases just to make a purchase. They’d bring us food. It was really amazing.”

Not longer after the shop was rebuilt, the COVID pandemic spread through the country. Franchetto-Trotta said the family continued to work out of the building with the doors locked, leaving orders for flowers on the front porch.

“I do think a lot of the response we’ve received has been because we’ve been here a long time,” Franchetto-Trotta said. “That, and Antioch is a good town, with good people and good families. Something like this doesn’t change that for us in our mind.”