EXCLUSIVE: SF woman speaks out after car burglars pulled gun on her for trying to stop them
Another long-time resident in the area says lately he's witnessed two to three car break-ins a day, and they're becoming more brazen.
SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Video shows the scary moments that unfolded for a woman Friday near San Francisco's Alamo Square.
The scene of a woman getting a gun pulled on her as she tried to stop car burglars, was all caught on camera.
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"I see they grabbed the bag and yelled 'hey, that's mine you're stealing!'" The woman who preferred to keep her identity private says she tried to stop the break-in by posing as the car owner.
In the video you can see the suspect grabbing something from a white van as the woman comes up.
In a blink of an eye she had a gun pointed at her by one of the suspects inside the getaway vehicle.
"Were you scared of your life?" we asked.
"Yeah, to some extent," she said.
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It's a moment she's still processing. She says during the pandemic, there's been an uptick of car break-ins in Alamo Square, but now thieves are more brazen.
"Oh my God, to take it that far. To use a weapon in that way and show force over a bagged item or somebody's purse. It just seemed so extreme," the resident said.
San Francisco police data shows that citywide in 2020, there were 13,553 thefts in vehicles.
This Alamo Square resident is telling us today's break-in was different.
ORIGINAL REPORT: Video shows burglar pointing gun at woman near SF's Alamo Square
It happened on broad day light at 12:30 pm. She says the thieves took with them passports and personal documents from inside a tourist vehicle parked feet from the famous Painted Ladies.
"It's gotten so bad that the city has signs like this on the sidewalk and on light poles. Many telling tonight it's just not enough," she said.
John has lived in the Alamo Square area for close to two decades and is also noticing two to three car break-ins a day. He's asking for the city to intervene.
"It'll be good if our supervisor would get the city to put cameras on all these light poles, anything we can do as a deterrent or to catch these criminals," said John.
SFPD confirmed to ABC7 News, the suspects fled the scene and no arrests have been made. They also urge residents to stand back and not put their lives in danger.
"Would you do it again?" ABC7 News reporter Luz Pena asked the woman.
"I don't think so," she said. "Maybe from farther away."
A witness tells ABC7 News the stuff inside the van belonged to a family visiting from Maryland and the thieves got a backpack full of passports.
