Bay Area reporters become targets of local thieves – again
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The news van of a local ABC affiliate in Oakland was broken into Tuesday, marking the latest Bay Area news team to be targeted in the past year.
Thieves stole the crew’s cellphones and other personal items, but no news equipment was taken, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
The car of a security guard that was with the crew was also broken into, according to the Chronicle.
The incident is a reminder of how dangerous it can be to report the news in Oakland. Since 2012, every major TV news station in the Bay Area has been victimized, the New York Times reported in March.
In November, San Francisco’s CBS station, KPIX-TV, reported that one of its camera operators was beaten by a group of young men who made off with his camera.
In one six-week period in spring 2012, there were more than half a dozen incidents in which journalists were targeted, the Oakland Tribune reported.
Among the thefts: a Tribune photographer’s laptop and camera were stolen at gunpoint in July and an NBC crew had its camera and tripod swiped in May.
Many stations in the Bay Area now take security officers with them when they report in Oakland and are more careful about where they set up to report nighttime assignments, according to local media reports.
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