In March, Jazz wrote about CNN reporter Kyung Lah who was doing a story about crime in San Francisco when her rental car windows were smashed and several bags were stolen.

Got robbed. Again. @jasonkCNN & I were at city hall in San Francisco to do an interview for @CNN. We had security to watch our rental car + crew car. Thieves did this in under 4 seconds. Security stopped the jerks from stealing other bags. But seriously- this is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/3zcCzckavW

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) March 17, 2023

You may have noticed that Lah’s tweet opened with “Got robbed. Again.” That’s because this was the 2nd time this had happened to her. In fact, because it had happened before, CNN had hired private security to stay with the car while she was inside City Hall doing an interview. Unfortunately, that wasn’t enough to stop the robbers, though the security guard did stop the thieves from taking everything.

Today, Lah was doing another story on crime in the Bay Area, this time in Oakland, when her rental car was hit again even though it was completely empty.

Even tho the car is empty, the thieves break in and lower the seat so they can steal anything in the trunk. Our trunk was empty.
If you come to San Francisco or Oakland, do not leave a single thing in your car. Ours was thankfully empty pic.twitter.com/2oHrC56Wtj

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) August 2, 2023

This was a rental car so Lah had to return it to the rental lot with a missing window. It turns out that didn’t make her anything close to unique.

At the rental car return lot, the employee tells us of the 250 cars returned yesterday, 27 had been broken into, just more than 10% of cars returned

— Kyung Lah (@KyungLahCNN) August 2, 2023

So if you’re renting a car in the Bay Area, always, always get the insurance. Honestly, I wonder if tourists turning up in this city have any idea what they are in for. Do the people at the Avis counter, or whatever, tell them not to leave anything in the car at any point? Do they warn them there’s a 10% chance of a break in? On the one hand that sort of information might seem bad for tourism. On the other hand isn’t it better to warn them than to let them find out the hard way after their laptop or other valuables have been stolen? I really think some reporter in SF should just go to a few rental counters and see what they are told or if different companies have policies about that.

Obviously this should be deeply embarrassing to the Bay Area. Things are bad enough that just last week the Oakland NAACP blasted local leaders about the need to do something about rising crime. [emphasis added]

Oakland residents are sick and tired of our intolerable public safety crisis that overwhelmingly impacts minority communities. Murders, shootings, violent armed robberies, home invasions, car break-ins, sideshows, and highway shootouts have become a pervasive fixture of life in Oakland. We call on all elected leaders to unite and declare a state of emergency and bring together massive resources to address our public safety crisis.

You can tell that SF is turning into Gotham City because the people that live there are turning into Batman. Just look at this guy:

I realize that real life is not a comic book but let’s face it, when the city and the police have essentially given up on stopping this sort of low-level crime, do they expect residents to give up with them? In the absence of any perceivable law and order, people will find ways to make their own. Here’s a follow-up story about business owners helping tourists deal with the rampant break-ins. “It’s just a really bad situation and we need help,” one owner tells ABC 7.