‘There’s no getting this back.’ Tacoma pizza bar broken into 5 times, owner says

Spud’s Pizza Parlor has been broken into several times since last August when a kitchen fire temporarily closed the ‘60s-era bar and restaurant in Tacoma’s South End, according to owner Tracie Paul.

The most recent incident left her reeling.

On Saturday, Jan. 3, said Paul, vandals pried open the bolted-down front door at 7025 Pacific Ave. They tore holes through the walls and the ceiling, ripping out camera wires and ethernet cables. They left with irreplaceable memorabilia, as FOX 13 Seattle first reported Monday.

One special item was a signed Kenny Sims University of Texas at Austin jersey. The defensive end, who went on to play eight seasons in the National Football League for the New England Patriots, was a family friend. He died in March.

“There’s no getting this back,” said Paul.

The purported robbers also ran away with other jerseys, which lined the wood paneling of the retro-styled bar, known for decades of sports-watching and fundraising events for local youth teams, as well as stiff, cheap drinks, thin-crust pies and a salad piled high with cheese and baby shrimp. The stolen pieces, per Paul, include a Matty Benier jersey worn during his 2023 season with the Seattle Kraken when the forward won the National Hockey League’s Rookie of the Year award; a Warren Moon jersey from the Michigan Wolverines’ almost-epic comeback against the Washington Huskies in the 1997 Rose Bowl; a Walter Jones jersey from the offensive tackle’s tenure at the Seattle Seahawks; and a Steve Largent jersey, a wide receiver for the Seahawks in the ‘70s and ‘80s.

With the help of friends and family, she has eyes on auction sites to see if they turn up.

Also gone: a Kraken jersey that doesn’t even have a real player’s name on it. It was her husband’s.

While Paul could maybe find another Largent jersey on eBay, she said, “It still sucks that my stuff’s gone.”

Paul said she had not previously filed police reports because she felt there was little authorities could do in the aftermath of previous break-ins. When it happened for the fifth time, though, the ramifications were obvious and severe.

Tacoma Police Department spokesperson Shelbie Boyd confirmed a report filed in January at Spud’s. She did not immediately respond to a request for additional information on the contents.

Fire then break-ins leave Spud’s in the dark

Spuds has been quiet and dark for more than four months.

Tacoma Fire responded to a grease fire believed to have sparked inside the kitchen’s ducts during lunch service on Saturday, Aug. 30. The cause was determined to be unintentional, but the fire likely spread due to grease build-up, The News Tribune reported at the time.

Nobody was injured, but the pizza ovens were damaged beyond repair and smoke damage required restoration work. Firefighters had to rip out some parts of the kitchen ceiling to put out the flames.

Paul and her team could not access the building in the immediate aftermath, as investigators for the local fire department and her insurance company completed their analyses. All utilities were turned off right away, Paul added, including electricity and gas. Without revenue, she has been unable to pay some of her insurance premiums and is waiting on funds to cover those losses from the fire-induced closure.

The electricity remains off because she doesn’t have the money to pay an electrician.

“It’s a vicious cycle,” said Paul.

When they eventually were able to enter the restaurant, they cleared out other valuables, leaving the cash registers empty and open, and removed liquor from the shelves. In the most recent break-in, the suspects also broke into a separate building on the property that still held some cases of liquor, which Paul said she had nowhere else to store.

The restaurant and storage building were secured, she added. The windows had been boarded up after someone threw rocks at them, she said, and the front door had been bolted down from the inside. Employees live nearby and keep an eye on the building, she continued, while her husband drives by frequently, as she does almost daily.

“These people had to go through three steel gates,” said Paul in a phone call. The back entrance to the restaurant is gated, and the storage building has a steel grate over the door. “They had to work for this stuff. It’s extremely frustrating.”

She is hopeful that the insurance will come through soon and crews can begin the work of restoring power to the property and installing new cameras and security systems.

“That’ll help,” said Paul, but now the timeline to reopening — already foggy — feels even more out of reach.

“All this is doing is elongated the closure,” she said. “I have zero timeline on that, but we are moving forward.”

This story was originally published January 14, 2026 at 10:00 AM.