'Inside Edition' Smash-and-Grab Sting Operation in San Francisco Goes Horribly Wrong
I always thought San Francisco was one of the most beautiful cities in the United States. It’s scenic overlook of San Francisco Bay and hillside terrain decorated with beautiful architecture is something everyone should see once in their lives.
However, there is an unsavory underbelly that doesn’t speak well to the culture there, and the television newsmagazine “Inside Edition” exposed it to all of America.
Smash and grab theft is one of San Francisco’s biggest crime problems and one historic neighborhood sees more than its share of events. In fact, as the news magazine wrapped its coverage of the crime phenomena, its crew became victims of the crime themselves.
“Inside Edition’s” Lisa Guerrero set up the report by describing the sting operation: A bait car complete with hidden cameras, an expensive purse and a $250 speaker, both armed with tracking devices.
The car was parked in Alamo Square park, where Guerrero describes the location as a “notorious hot spot for thieves.”
After leaving the car, the crew watched from nearby. They saw a couple approach the car and the male breaks the window stealing the purse and speaker.
In hot pursuit Guerrero confronts the male thief on camera and eventually gets him to return the speaker to her. However the female took off in another direction and it is revealed she stashed the purse in a nearby trash can.
All this was caught on their surveillance cameras and also the surveillance camera of a nearby resident.
The unidentified resident explained occurrences like the one reported by “Inside Edition” are common in his neighborhood. In fact, he sees instances like this every day.
Unfortunately, there’s a nasty twist to this story.
While Guerrero and her crew were wrapping up the interview with the resident, they witnessed another smash and grab break-in. This time, it was their own crew truck full of expensive equipment seized by thieves.
“Unbelievably, when we were inside conducting the interview, thieves came out here and they broke into our crew truck. Check this out. They broke this window and the back window and they stole thousands of dollars of our equipment. So we actually got hit twice in one day,” reported Guerrero.
“Inside Edition” reported the city of San Francisco experienced 31,000 smash and grab thefts last year. Less than 2 percent were solved.
In March, local San Francisco news station KRON4 reported car burglaries were up 25 percent and property crime was up 15 percent from 2017.
“And here’s the eye-opener — theft from a vehicle is up by a whopping 25 percent. Locals and tourists are the targets. The city acknowledges this is an epidemic.”
While homicides and murder by firearms was down by 3 and 5 percent respectively, rape was up by 7 percent.
And the San Francisco Chronicle reported in July that violent crime was up on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system.
“Statistics for the first six months of the year show that violent crime on BART is up 2 percent over last year, and, if it remains on the same pace for the rest of the year, will show a 66 percent rise over the past five years.”
San Francisco is a beautiful city, but how long will it stay that way with the upswing in crime stats?
Maybe the city, home of House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein, could use a change in leadership. Maybe someone of a more conservative philosophy who is tough on crime and less liberal with sanctuary city policy would be able to clean up the growing mess there.
Just a thought.
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