Literal smash and grab in San Francisco

[Caballoflaco]

My understanding from a news story is that they were observed using the equipment and stowing it in the back, and then followed.

I’m not surprised. My first thought was they’re lucky that those guys didn’t follow them all the way back to their house.

[AMC]

I would generally agree that it seems odd that someone would know that there is something worth stealing at a random moment, except for the fact that it it SF.

This crap in epidemic there. I was teaching in SF a couple of years ago, and my host - the owner of TAD, said under no circumstances should I leave anything in view in an unattended car. The transient druggies will break a car window for anything, even something as mundane as a hoodie or even a bottle of Diet Pepsi. Residents there even in the "nice" areas are used to car break ins even parked in the driveway or in front of their home. The prior year Brett said that SF had the highest per capita car break ins of any city in the country, and at the time it was getting worse, and this is a couple of years ago. I doubt a city that lets homeless people take a dump in the street in broad daylight is going to be doing anything to stop these thefts, so I don't think this video shows anything more than what it probably is - a random act in the moment.

Things have changed in the last 5 years in terms of offender demographics. It used to be primarily transients targeting cars parked in residential neighborhoods during hours of darkness....mostly. That changed several years ago to gangs of young dudes, often armed, who made a cost/benefit analysis and decided auto burglaries, especially if the stolen property stays under $950 per incident, was the way to go. High yield, low risk. These groups usually run 2-3 to a car, and concentrate on tourist areas. Tourists tend to leave lots of valuables in their cars, and rental cars are easily ID'd as such from the street. Takes literally seconds to spot a rental, jump out and check inside, then pop the window, grab the loot and run.

When you combine this with a long running prosecution policy that requires 5 arrests for auto burglary before the DA will bundle cases and prosecute, a PD pursuit policy that forbids pursuit for a property crime even if the officer witnesses it in progress, the lowest bail rates in Northern California, and tourist victims often unavailable for court....we long ago created a perfect storm where there's literally nothing the police can do about this scourge. And that was before we elected Chesa Boudin as DA.

Interestingly, the pandemic has crushed tourism, which has driven down the victim population for these organized gangs. So, predictably, they've returned to robbery. Street robberies and, frighteningly, home invasion robberies are on a wild upswing. Nobody saw that coming at all/sarcasm.

[andre3k]

We would call that a "jugging" here. Suspects sit up on a bank / jewelry store parking lot, pick a target that's coming out with a money bag or high priced item, follow them to the next location and break in to retrieve the item. I guess these guys pushed up the timeline a bit and decided to hit them at the on-ramp to the freeway.

[Rex G]

We would call that a "jugging" here. Suspects sit up on a bank / jewelry store parking lot, pick a target that's coming out with a money bag or high priced item, follow them to the next location and break in to retrieve the item. I guess these guys pushed up the timeline a bit and decided to hit them at the on-ramp to the freeway.

Just what I was thinking, a jugging, except targeting photo/video/drone equipment, rather than money bags or watches/jewelry.

[AMC]

Interestingly, television News crews are robbed of their camera equipment on a semi regular basis in the SF Bay Area. It's common for crews to hire armed off duty or retired officers as security for that very reason.

[Suvorov]

Interestingly, television News crews are robbed of their camera equipment on a semi regular basis in the SF Bay Area. It's common for crews to hire armed off duty or retired officers as security for that very reason.

Maybe if they stopped championing the ever more permissive and progressive policies- they wouldn’t have to worry about it?