Hombre Bar Vandalized

Alan Kackin, the owner of Hombre Bar at 2500 West Oakland Park Blvd, in Oakland Park, says he has been losing some serious money operating at a location west of Rt 95 and far from the gay bar mecca of Wilton Drive, but he does not intend to let a vicious attack on his premises put him out of business.

Between Friday night's closing and the noon arrival of Kackin and his staff at the bar on Saturday to prepare for their busiest night of the week, the bar was broken into and almost all of its equipment demolished, including pool tables, pinball machines, video games, TVs, music system, cash register, jukebox and credit card reader.

"My staff went in first and then came back to the car and said 'You don't want to go in there'. That's how bad it was. We had the police in, and they found some good fingerprints. Whoever did this tried to put us out of business, but we got to work and were able to open up for our weekly Bear Party that same night."

Kackin, who is 69 years old and disabled, says that he does not have any guess about who might have been responsible for the attack.

"This is not about robbery. They didn't break into our office. They didn't steal money from the jukebox. The amount of liquor they took was small compared to the extensive damage they did to everything in the bar. They obviously were trying to keep us from opening up and operating. I don't know if it's a disgruntled customer, an ex-employee or locals who maybe don't like having a gay bar here. I doubt this was done by a competitor. We are so small that we don't take business from any other bar."

Kackin, who had previously owned The Eagle on Powerline Road, said that Hombre Bar enjoys a good relationship with its neighbors. "Even the church next door is so sweet to us, always asking about how our staff is doing. This was done by someone with more than just a little anger. The police told me that if this had been a physical attack on my body, it wouldn't have been a single stab wound; it would have been total mutilation. That's how they explained the level of anger involved."

Kackin said that the attackers did not write any homophobic slurs on the premises. His main concern is his staff and the vendor of the destroyed fixtures.

"Look, I have no insurance that will cover this. With the huge amount of money I have lost on this business in the last year, I could shut the door tomorrow and finally wake up relieved of the horror of this struggle, but I have a dedicated team and they need their jobs here. They have more to lose at this point. Whoever did this will find out that karma is a bitch."

Anyone with information about this should contact the Broward County Sherriff's Office. 954 831-8900