TV Crew Plans 1 Car Break-In, Gets 2 Instead

'Problem has reached epidemic proportions' in San Francisco
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 14, 2018 8:36 AM CDT

They anticipated the first burglary, just not the second. While reporting on the epidemic of car break-ins in SanFrancisco, Inside Edition crew members watched as a man broke into a bait car fitted with hidden cameras. Reporter Lisa Guerrero began Wednesday's report by parking a car near San Francisco's Alamo Square with a designer purse and $250 speaker in full view. It wasn't long before a man smashed a rear window and grabbed the items, which had hidden GPS trackers. The purse, thrown to a female companion who slipped away at a subway station, was eventually found in a trash can, but Guerrero discovered the speaker still in the man's hand, reports the San Francisco Chronicle.

"Five million people are gonna see you steal that," Guerrero told him. When he dropped the speaker and walked away, Guerrero went to interview a neighborhood resident whose surveillance camera captured the burglary, which he described as a daily occurrence. But Guerrero returned to the crew's SUV to find "we actually got hit twice in one day." The same surveillance camera spotted thieves smashing two of the vehicle's windows and making off with "thousands of dollars worth of equipment," Guerrero said. Per Inside Edition, "the problem has reached epidemic proportions, with car break-ins happening an average of every 17 minutes" in the city. Desperate residents have actually taken to leaving notes for would-be burglars, the Fresno Bee reports, via a reporter's tweet. (More San Francisco stories.)

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