By Brian Niemietz
New York Daily News
SAN FRANCISCO — CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah and a senior producer were robbed in San Francisco while working on a story about “rampant street crime.”
“Got robbed again,” Lah tweeted Friday afternoon.
Lah said she and CNN’s Jason Kravarik were inside City Hall when thieves smashed their way into a car being watched by security guards and made off with items including her passport. According to Lah, who posted a photo of a smashed rear window, the thieves were gone in under four seconds.
“But seriously — this is ridiculous,” she wrote.
Security guards hired to watch the CNN team’s rental car and equipment car reportedly gave chase, but the crooks pulled away in a black Infiniti with California plates.
The CNN guards got a picture of the car and its license plate as it sped off.
Lah worried she wouldn’t be able to fly back to her home base in L.A. because her identification was in one of the stolen bags. According to the reporter, Southwest Airlines said it isn’t uncommon for travelers to have their bags stolen in San Francisco and gave her a plane ticket after a security check.
Lah and her team spent three days in “beautiful” San Francisco, but warned that even with hired muscle keeping guard, cars aren’t safe on city streets.
A couple hours after the robbery, Lah got good news.
“OMG!!! My bag was recovered!” she tweeted late Friday afternoon.
Kravarik’s stolen bag remained missing. He too works out of CNN’s Los Angeles bureau.
Automobile break-ins are an ongoing issue in the Bay Area, according to multiple news reports. NBC News reported San Francisco averaged 74 break-ins daily.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported in December more than half of San Francisco residents surveyed had been victims of theft or larceny, with illegal entry into automobiles accounting for a large number of grievances. That paper offers a car break-in tracker. A Twitter feed called @SFCarBreakins lets San Franciscans share their experiences. One user claimed their car was broken into twice this week.
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