San Francisco is in the midst of a car break-in epidemic and a video has gone viral showing a pair of tourists trying to stop thieves from making off with their valuables in a black Audi Q5.
The incident occurred on September 13 while Dmitry Koval and his friends were parked at the Fort Mason Center lot in the city’s Marian District. While in the lot at approximately 4 p.m., the black Audi pulled up next to their two white Ford Transit vans and two suspects got out and smashed the side windows of the Fords.
The thieves stole bags with roughly $10,000 worth of items in them, including personal electronics, documents, and passports. However, Dmitry and his friends weren’t willing to just watch the thieves make off their belongings and attempted to stop the thieves.
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Koval and one of his friends tried to grab the Audi’s steering wheel but the thieves fought back and accelerated away, leaving Koval and his friend clinging to the doors. One of the men fell off in the parking lot and slid across the ground, suffering a number of painful scratches. The second man was thrown off from the Q5 after the video cut off. He broke both his legs and had to stay at a local hospital for several days for treatment.
“We saw them taking bags from our vans and started putting it into the black SUV,” Koval told the New York Post. “That’s when my friends started running and other people there were honking their horns. I heard someone yell, ‘Don’t run to them! They might have a gun!’ We thought we would be safer if we went somewhere else so we went to Fort Mason lot. I am just still in shock because it all happened so fast. In total, they probably took about $10,000 worth [of items], including laptops and other important things like documents and our passports.”
According to the police, there have been more than 15,000 car break-ins across San Francisco this year. Supervisor Dean Preston is calling for a coordinated response from city departments and while speaking with ABC 7 News, local police say they have made 37 arrests this year related to car break-ins.