Shocking surveillance video captured the moment a brazen California crook smashed out the window of a car stuck in traffic before climbing inside to commit a crime. The disturbing incident, which took place in the middle of the day on a busy city street, left many wishing this wasn’t the world we live in.
Typically, there are a couple of places most people feel safe, including their own home or in their vehicle with the doors locked and the windows up. Sadly, the driver of a car that became stuck in traffic on a busy city street in Oakland, California, learned the hard way that our vehicles do little to deter determined criminals after a horrific incident was captured on video by a nearby surveillance camera.
In the footage, a brazen crook is seen hopping out of a white sedan in the middle of the day before approaching another vehicle. The dark-colored car that the man converged upon had reportedly just become stuck in traffic on Broadway at 22nd after the driver had just departed a bank on that fateful Wednesday, according to The Blaze. What happened next is terrifying to watch:
𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗸-𝗜𝗻 𝗥𝗼𝗯𝗯𝗲𝗿𝘆 𝗪𝗵𝗶𝗹𝗲 𝗗𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴: The driver told me she thought she was going to die.
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The victim who would like to remain anonymous. She left the bank 7/7 & was stuck in traffic at Broadway & 22nd when a man approached her car… (1/4)#oakland pic.twitter.com/aQOgj99Qgt— Dion Lim (@DionLimTV) July 12, 2021
Within seconds, the bold criminal smashed out the window of the car before climbing halfway inside and stealing the terrified driver’s purse and backpack during the broad daylight smash-and-grab crime. The driver, still frightened by the ordeal, didn’t want to go on camera but told reporters that she thought she was going to die.
“I was yelling and looking at him, and we made eye contact,” the victim recalled. Sadly, she had nowhere to escape since she was stuck in traffic, preventing her from getting away, and the entire ordeal left her “understandably shaken, even several days following the incident,” according to ABC 7 News.
In fact, according to a tweet by KGO reporter Dion Lim, the woman said she didn’t leave her house for days after the incident. “I wish this was not our world,” she said, referring to the frightening ordeal, and many would agree, especially considering that it “took a while for anyone to offer help,” according to the victim.
After the bold and ballsy robbery that was witnessed by many fellow motorists on the busy street, it took 30 minutes before anyone called the police, according to Lim, who added that it was her understanding that the victim’s phone was stolen in the incident.
“What’s sad to me is that the woman said it took awhile for anyone to offer help. She said she was screaming during the ordeal. It wasn’t until 30 minutes later someone called police. I believe her phone was stolen in the incident,” Dion Lim tweeted.
“It seems like these criminals, it just doesn’t matter what day, what time, where they’re at, [if] they’re gonna do something, they just seem to do it,” one woman told KGO after Lim showed a pair of pedestrians the surveillance video of the incident, leaving them shocked.
Although law enforcement sources told KGO that such a brazen break-in may seem unusual, it’s not the first time there have been such robberies committed against motorists while they are operating their vehicles. In fact, a similar incident was captured on camera in San Francisco just months before the more recent Oakland incident.
In the San Francisco smash-and-grab, which was captured by another vehicle’s dashcam, two real estate photographers, who had just departed a photoshoot, were targeted while in their car as they approached an on-ramp. A man is seen jumping out of a black Honda, smashing the other car’s rear window before pulling property out of the vehicle and taking off with the stolen equipment.
At the time of the Oakland incident, police said they have seen a 115% increase in armed carjackings compared to the prior year. Meanwhile, we’ve heard calls to “defund the police.” I have to agree with the Oakland victim, however. I wish this was not our world. Sadly, this is what we can come to expect in a society that has little regard for law and order and wants soft consequences for criminals, who are often coddled by our justice system.
