San Francisco Car Burglars Target Parking Garages; Show Up At Victim's Home
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) -- Car break-in victims may feel their vehicles are generally safer parked in a garage than on San Francisco streets, but that no longer is true. Smash-and-grabs are also happening in parking garages.
The driver of a Mercedes Benz, who wants to remain anonymous for privacy reasons, shared photos of the damage with KPIX 5.
She said not only did thieves smash her car windows, they cleaned out her glove compartment and stole her gate and garage openers, and found her address. She said that same day, burglars drove to her East Bay home, and opened her garage twice. They did not get inside, once they realized someone was home.
The victim said her car was parked in the Hilton Financial District Hotel garage on Kearny Street last weekend.
A San Francisco food blogger Yen Kim Phan said her Mazda Miata was hit two times in three weeks in the city. This time, it was the Fifth and Mission Street Garage around midnight Saturday.
"After we left the movie theater, which was about 12:30 am, I walked into the garage on the bottom floor I saw that my car was smashed - the driver's side, and it wasn't just my car, there were a few other cars that were also broken into as well," said Phan.
Phan said she didn't leave any valuables inside her car, and nothing was taken.
"There were three securities there and he was right there already when I came to my car, and he said yeah, we came down because we heard alarm, and they were trying to get another car close by to mine," she said. "But the security scared them away and he said just right before that, they were attacking a car on the fourth floor. And then when they came up, they managed to attack another car, before running away."
City data shows in the last 7 days there were 260 reported car break-ins. San Francisco saw 2,000 break-ins in the last 30 days.
"It's starting to make me question whether it's really safe in the city anymore, it's making everyone question should we drive, what should we do?" said Phan. "It's so dangerous."
