SAN FRANCISCO — In the San Francisco Golden Gate Park, a smash and grab robbery was caught on a cell phone video camera after the victim managed to stop the robber from taking his valuables on Wednesday, February 24.
The video reveals a man in a blue hoodie grabbing a suitcase out of the broken window of a parked SUV and running across the street with it along with a stolen backpack. At that moment, the victim arrives and runs after him. The robber runs, dropping the suitcase in the middle of the street. The victim tries to get his backpack from the robber, just before he hops into a getaway car driven by an accomplice.
A bystander happened to stumble across the daytime smash-and-grab robbery scene driving back from lunch Wednesday on Martin Luther King Drive near Kezar Drive.
According to CBS SF, in an interview Forrest Lanning the resident who shot the video said, “I saw this guy at the car and I thought he was just trying to open it, but then I saw him break the window and then I’m like, he’s doing one of those smash-and-grabs.” Lanning also took a snapshot of the suspect’s Chevy Impala license plate 5ZZN552 and called the police. He later mentioned that this is the second smash-and-grab he’s witnessed right in front of him in Golden Gate Park in two years.
The SFPD crime statistics show that robberies have increased by 74%, burglaries by 222%, and car thefts too by 31%, compared with the same period last year. Larceny thefts are down by 44%.
