A San Francisco-based photographer was just lately adopted dwelling after taking pictures on the Golden Gate Bridge after which robbed of his digital camera gear at gunpoint in his driveway. The terrifying incident was caught on dwelling safety cameras.
Within the 23-minute video above by Tony & Chelsea Northrup, photographer Louis Chan shares the story of how he turned one of many newest Bay Space photographers to fall sufferer to a digital camera theft.
Chan says he and a pal have been taking pictures the Golden Gate Bridge in fog from the favored Battery Spencer lookout level after they seen a few males watching them.
“It’s a cautious factor that you need to do these days in San Francisco, sadly,” Chan tells Chelsea Northrup. “There are many, many, many cases of like folks getting robbed [and] shot for his or her digital camera gear.”
Chan completed taking pictures and left the world at round 8 pm and obtained dwelling about an hour later after dropping his pal off. He backed into his driveway to get it in place for charging and was chatting with a colleague when, out of the nook of his eye, he seen two males stroll as much as his automobile.
The primary man strolled proper as much as the driver-side window and knocked on it. When Chan rolled it down an inch, the person requested him which route the freeway was.
“I’m like, ‘who would ask which route is the freeway?’ and instantly like a second later in my head, I’m like ‘okay there’s one thing improper,’ and that’s after I see the second man form of run by way of my periphery,” Chan tells Northrup. “That’s after I hit lock within the automobile [and] I hit the [horn] tremendous quick to make quite a lot of noise. And on the identical time I’m making an attempt to carry the brake and hit drive, making an attempt to flee as a result of I do know what’s taking place.”
Regardless of Chan making an attempt to attract consideration to the theft in progress, the second man proceeded to press a instrument into Chan’s rear windshield, shatter the glass, seize the digital camera bag within the trunk, and run away.
It’s by no means advisable to chase robbers — life is infinitely extra invaluable than possessions — however Chan, in a second of battle or flight response, stepped on his accelerator and practically ran the robbers over. His Tesla was solely prevented from doing so by a row of cinderblocks that Chan’s father had put within the entrance yard.
However Chan didn’t cease there.
After getting across the cinderblocks, Chan noticed the robbers subsequent to their getaway automobile after which used his Tesla to ram the automobile and field it in.
“I used to be capable of impression the rear driver facet of the automobile like excellent behind the wheel nicely and I hit the bumper actually exhausting, and one facet of the bumper principally simply got here proper off.”
Chan then watched as the motive force of the automobile walked in entrance of the Tesla with a gun pointed proper at Chan.
Fortunately for Chan, the person then obtained into the getaway automobile and sped away with the bumper being dragged throughout the street.
The person did hearth one shot in the course of the escape, purportedly at Chan’s relations who have been operating onto the scene, however fortunately nobody was struck by the bullet.
Chan’s Tesla cameras had captured a transparent view of each the crime and the getaway automobile’s license plate, and Chan quickly realized that the motive force/shooter had been captured and was in custody. The person isn’t any stranger to the regulation — Chan did a search of his title and realized that he had robbed one other skilled photographer in San Francisco again in 2015 on the Palace of Superb Arts.
In that crime, the person had adopted the photographer again to her automobile and repeatedly hit her within the head together with his gun earlier than fleeing along with her digital camera gear.
“They have been caught, went to jail, and now he’s on federal probation, and now committing the identical crime once more,” Chan says.
“I hope that [Chan’s story] makes folks extra conscious of the truth that it is a very actual downside it could occur to them they usually must be ready with insurance coverage,” Northrup says. “Don’t battle again, give them your stuff — nothing is price your life.
“We additionally must be ready to assist one another. You need to be going out in teams, you need to be making an attempt to be protected despite the fact that it’s probably not preventable 100%, and to attempt to be diligent and go searching to ensure you’re not being adopted and issues like that.”
You could find extra of Tony and Chelsea Northrup’s movies on their popular YouTube channel. You can even discover Chan’s work on his website, Facebook, and Instagram.
Picture credit: All photographs by Louis Chan and used with permission
