A concerned citizen managed to film a group of brazen vandals burglarizing a line of vehicles in broad daylight Wednesday, noting the culprits “just didn’t care.”
Crime reporter for KTVU Henry K. Lee shared the video on social media, revealing that the string of robberies took place near the tourist haven of Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco. Though the area was teeming with bystanders, the brazen thieves continued to “smash and grab” a whole line of cars with little concern of being followed or caught as they ultimately drove away in a white Lexus.
These guys in Lexus bipped cars all over SF’s Fisherman’s Wharf, one by one. “I started following them, and they just didn’t care, obviously, that they were being followed or not, and it kept happening,” witness tells me. @SFPD @SFPDCentral pic.twitter.com/WzKacoRFGl
— Henry K. Lee (@henrykleeKTVU) August 16, 2023
“I started following them, and they just didn’t care, obviously, that they were being followed or not, and it kept happening,” the witness who captured the video reportedly told Lee.
“It’s called ‘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,”San Francisco Police Lt.Tracy McCray told the New York Post.
McCray added that the most infuriating part of the crime is how brazen it has become. “They don’t even try to hide what they are doing anymore.”
The rise in crime has had a crippling effect on San Francisco that is already considered by many to be spiraling into a doom loop – a term coined by a Columbia University professor to describe cities where “workers don’t return, retail businesses shutter for lack of customers, residents flee to the suburbs, and city tax revenues decline, leading to fewer services, and then fewer residents,” according to Tufts Now. (RELATED: New Tour Promises Scenic Walk Through SF’s ‘Squalor’ To Show How ‘Wealthiest City’ Became ‘Model Of Urban Decay’)
McCray told the New York Post that while the San Francisco Police Department has undercover police who track break-ins such as the ones filmed Wednesday, there aren’t enough resources to bring the criminals to justice due to other issues facing the city, such as the fentanyl crisis.
“When we do make an arrest for a break-in, the problem is, they are released almost immediately on their own recognizance and they go right back out there and do it again. A lot of them even have ankle monitoring bracelets and they still don’t care. There’s that complete disregard because they know they will just get away with it,” McCray stated.