San Francisco gang destroys woman’s dream move to Bali with brazen smash-and-grab on her car while she made a FOUR-MINUTE stop at In-N-Out for a burger
A young travel writer from Boston left all but her heart behind in San Francisco when her plans for a new life abroad are derailed by a gang of masked thieves in the crime-ridden city.
Kathryn Shortsleeve was targeted after just two days in the city when she stopped to get a burger at an In-N-Out on her way to the airport.
Within seconds, a gang of four men had entered her rental car and made off with her suitcases, leaving her planned move to Bali in tatters.
“All I have with me is what I’m wearing and I love this hat and that little bag that doesn’t really have anything in it,” she said in a TikTok video from the airport.
“This is such a problem in San Francisco and it’s really scary and really sad and I don’t know what the solution is.”
Shortleave was left with little more than the clothes she woke up in by the time she reached the San Francisco airport
The gang of four masked men made short work of her rental car when she stopped for a meal
Shortsleave showed off the hat and a small bag, all that the unfortunate blogger was left with after the attack
Robberies in the city are up 16 percent so far this year, with more than 30,000 thefts reported to San Francisco police.
In August alone, San Francisco reported nearly 1,670 car burglaries, adding to the nearly 10,000 thefts from vehicles recorded in the city this year.
“My computer, my iPad, my airpods, my Bose headphones from that era, all my clothes, my prescriptions, my holder, my passport. My passport!’ Short sleeved.
‘Everything I own was legitimately taken.
‘I parked to get a burger and fries and went in, I was here for four minutes just to get a takeaway, just grab something and go.
I’m literally standing at the counter ordering and someone says, ‘Who has the Jeep outside?
I’m like ‘yeah’ and they’re like ‘someone’s stealing all your stuff’.
“I run outside and this is what I see: four masked guys with ski masks on have taken all my stuff from the car, smashed the windows, destroyed the rental car I had and took all my stuff.
The video has already been viewed 270,000 times since it was uploaded from the airport yesterday
The Tiktoker later uploaded footage of the people being filmed stealing from her car
It took the ski mask-wearing gang just seconds to empty everything they had in her car
The car rental company asked her to drive the wrecked vehicle 30 minutes to their depot to avoid a $1,000 fine
“And now, because I don’t have my passport, obviously I can’t leave the country and fly to Bali, and I think, what the heck? So now I’m just flying back to Boston.’
Earlier this month, tourists visiting San Francisco’s Ocean Beach had all their belongings stolen by thieves who went from car to car, forcing their way inside and looting the contents in just ten minutes.
A family from Malta was only on their second day in the city when they were forced to consider cutting their holiday short after losing their passports, cameras, phones, iPads, laptops and luggage.
Last month, thieves in San Francisco were caught on camera driving through the streets in a Lexus, stopping at parked cars to smash windows and steal valuables.
One SUV even had a person sitting in the back when the windows were smashed, but the thief still grabbed the victim’s bag before fleeing in the waiting Lexus.
Signs can be seen throughout the city warning residents and tourists not to leave anything in their cars, but the crime rate has remained stubbornly high.
Tourist areas such as North Beach, Japantown and Presidio have the highest rate of car burglaries per 10,000 residents.
Last year, Lt. Tracy McCray, president of the San Francisco Police Officers Federation, became a victim of the crime herself.
Her car was parked on the 1200 block of Franklin Street, between Tenderloin and Japantown, on March 23, 2022, while she was visiting a relative at CPMC Van Ness Campus hospital.
McCray said she was parked for less than 30 minutes, but her car was still broken into.
She wrote a blog post titled, “Hell, They Got Me Too!”
In 2011, police arrested only about 2 percent of reported car burglaries. Today that figure is below 1 percent.
Shortsleave, who posts under the username @katshortsleave, told her followers that police found one of her suitcases on the side of a highway with clothes “flying around on the highway right now.”
Last month, thieves in San Francisco were caught on camera driving through the streets in a Lexus, stopping at parked cars to smash windows and steal valuables
The locals sympathized with their visitor after her experience in their town
In a later video filmed at home in Boston, she revealed that the remains of both suitcases had been found and returned to her by police, along with a garbage bag believed to contain her clothes.
“I opened the garbage bag and it was other people’s clothes, random shoes, dirt, trash, it was disgusting.
‘Of course the nice clothes were all taken.
“I’m just grateful to be back.”