Thieves in San Francisco have been caught on camera cruising the street in a white Lexus, and stopping at parked cars to smash the windows and steal goods inside.
The brazen theft was seen in footage obtained by local news station KTVU.
Henry Lee, KTVU’s crime reporter, filmed the scene in Fisherman’s Wharf – the heart of San Francisco’s tourist district – in broad daylight, and shared it on Twitter on Wednesday.
One SUV even had a person sitting in the back when the windows were smashed, but the thief still snatched the victim’s bag before escaping in the waiting Lexus, leaving the person inside screaming.
Lt. Tracy McCray told The New York Post that the smash-and-grab technique was known in the Bay Area as ‘bipping and boosting’.
‘It really exploded during the pandemic – so much so that someone told me that the sidewalks are glistening and sparkling [with glass from windows] where cars are broken into left and right,’ she said.
San Francisco had nearly 1,670 car break-ins in the past 30 days, according to the latest data tracked by the San Francisco Police Department.
Thieves in San Francisco are seen getting into a white Lexus on Wednesday, having smashed windows in parked cars and stolen goods inside
There has been nearly 10,000 thefts from vehicles in the city so far this year.
Signs can be seen throughout the city warning residents and tourists not to leave anything inside their cars, but the crime rate has remained stubbornly high.
Tourist areas such as the North Beach, Japantown and Presidio have the highest rate of break-ins in cars per 10,000 residents.
Last year, McCray, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Federation, fell victim to the crime herself.
Her car was parked on the 1200 block of Franklin Street, in between the Tenderloin and Japantown, on March 23, 2022, while she visited a relative at the CPMC Van Ness Campus hospital.
McCray said she was parked for less than 30 minutes, but still her car was broken into.
She wrote a blog post entitled: ‘Hell – they got me, too!’
McCray wrote: ‘I had officially become a casualty of the auto burglary epidemic!
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‘Fortunately, nothing was stolen from my vehicle – not even my dog’s dirty towel I use to wipe him down after playing at the beach, however it still managed to rankle me.
‘Like the countless victims of this ‘victimless crime’ I knew that I now had to devote time to get the window repaired and pay for an unexpected expense.
‘It is all annoying as hell as that broken and loose glass remains days and months later!
‘After mentally sorting through the repair process my next thought turns to the dilemma of: to report or not to report?
‘I, of all people, know the probability of this type of crime being solved in this city with someone being held responsible.
‘So, I think to myself, ‘Screw it,’ I am one of thousands of people in San Francisco that will not report a crime.
‘The reality is, with our limited resources, there are much more serious crimes in need of attention and my broken window is not one of them.’
McCray said residents have been so frustrated by the thefts that they leave notes for would-be burglars.
‘People are even leaving notes on their car saying, ‘Hey, I have nothing inside. Just don’t break my window.,” she said.
‘It’s really sad to think about that because you just want to come in and enjoy the city, but you have to worry about something like that happening.’
Supervisor Dean Preston, whose district includes several hot spots for car break-ins in neighborhoods such as Alamo Square and Japantown, last month called for a hearing with the Mayor’s Office, police, Municipal Transportation Agency and a other city departments to explain to the Board of Supervisors what is being done about the problem.
‘Despite many announcements, the city has made no noticeable progress in addressing this persistent issue,’ he said.
‘It’s time to let the public know what’s been working and what hasn’t, and what can be done collaboratively to finally reduce car break-ins.
‘Meanwhile, residents continue to deal with broken car windows, stolen possessions, and shattered glass on streets and sidewalks, while visitors are left with trauma, financial loss, and less-than-ideal memories of their visits.’
A police spokesman told The San Francisco Standard that they were working to identify members of criminal gangs.
‘We understand that perpetrators are organized and often come from outside the city to prey on the residents and the many visitors to our city,’ said Robert Rueca.
‘We are working to identify these networks of criminals and we’re making arrests.’
