EXCLUSIVE: Brazen car burglary caught on camera in San Francisco's Chinatown

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ByVic Lee KGO logo
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
EXCLUSIVE: Brazen car burglary caught on camera in SF's Chinatown
A brazen car burglary happened in the middle of the day on busy Stockton Street in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown, a community still reeling from a vicious attack on two community leaders.

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- A brazen car burglary happened in the middle of the day on busy Stockton Street in the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown.

It happened at about 1:30 p.m.

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The victim's rental SUV was parked just outside a travel agency owned by Ed Siu.

"I yell out and ask them to stop it. They didn't stop it. So all I can do is take pictures and call police," Siu said.

Some of the photos Siu took show two men in hoodies taking luggage, electronics and passports belonging to four tourists from Southeast Asia, who stopped in Chinatown for lunch.

The burglars doubled parked their car next to the rented Range Rover, broke two windows, got their loot and left.

Raymond Hong owns a photo shop on the same side of the street. He saw it all go down.

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"They're really fast. It happened in around 15 to 20 seconds."

"That's it?"

"That's it."

Chinatown merchants and residents are still reeling from a vicious midday attack in mid-July on two community leaders, which also happened on Stockton Street -- the assault also caught on camera.

Since then, Hong says Chinatown merchants have banded together to monitor crime in the community.

"We have 259 merchant people all work together. If something happens, we text them and they say 'be careful, there's a robbery over there," Hong says.

Hong says police responded quickly when he texted them.

Police believe this group has committed other car burglaries across the city, usually on foot.

Double parking their cars next to the victims' seems to mean a new MO and that they're becoming bolder.