SAN ANTONIO – The San Antonio Police Department says car burglaries are not new and not isolated to one side of town. Two families proved that point when nearly identical car burglaries happened to both families on opposite sides of town.
“We have seen some recent videos with guns being pointed at a house while another person is doing a burglary of a vehicle,” SAPD Sgt. Travis Gourley said.
Denise and Ray are two victims of a car burglary while someone held their home at gunpoint. KSAT is not identifying their last names for their safety.
“When I opened the Ring camera, that’s when we saw the person standing right next to my husband’s truck with the door open,” Denise said.
Video from their front yard showed multiple people trying to break into Denise’s husband’s truck, all while pointing a gun at their front door.
“She was like, ‘Oh my God, they had a gun,’” Ray said.
You can watch that surveillance footage in the video player below:
Denise told KSAT that one person acted as the lookout while the other opened the door.
“The other had the computer to interrupt and disrupt the connection between his fob and the truck,” Denise said.
The people were able to get the car door open, but then a neighbor pulled into the driveway next to them. Denise yelled at the burglars over their home camera, “Hey, you!” and they ran away.
“I could have gotten shot myself, but for a truck,” Ray questioned.
“It was really scary because I didn’t feel safe anymore,” Denise said. “They’re willing to injure or kill someone over a vehicle.”
It’s an almost identical crime to one KSAT reported last week. Two people were caught on camera trying to break into a Hellcat while also holding the home at gunpoint. It’s something that homeowner said he wasn’t expecting either.
“That was a little scary to understand that there was a live firearm being pointed at our door,” Sam said.
The two burglaries happened on completely opposite sides of town — one on the Northwest Side and the other on the Southeast Side. It’s a crime that SAPD said is not secluded to just one area.
“Throughout the city, it doesn’t matter what part of the town, it happens all over the place every day,” Gourley said.
SAPD encourages people to lock their car and take valuables they might not even be thinking about.
“Title, registration, insurance information, any documents, papers that could have valuable identifying information,” Gourley said.
For anyone worried about their safety after burglaries like what happened to Denise, Ray and Sam, SAPD said they can offer some relief.
“You can request to have police do what’s called a patrol-by,” Gourley said. “So when they’re not on a call and they have an open time in their shift, they can drive through the neighborhood, drive through the street.”
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