The irony in this story is almost off of the charts. CNN correspondent Kyung Lah and her producer, Jason Kravarik, were at the San Francisco City Hall interviewing someone about the city’s skyrocketing crime rates. Knowing how dangerous the streets are these days, they took extra precautions by hiring private security to guard their vehicle. But while they were inside, in a matter of “under four seconds,” this happened. (National Review)

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

Members of a CNN crew had their bags stolen out of their rental car while on assignment at San Francisco’s city hall for a story about the city’s rampant crime.

“Got robbed. Again,” CNN senior national correspondent Kyung Lah wrote in a tweet on Friday.

While she and CNN producer Jason Kravarik were conducting an interview at city hall, thieves broke into their car and snatched their bags “in under 4 seconds” despite the crew having hired private security to keep watch.

Don’t feel too guilty if you found yourself laughing at this story because thankfully nobody was injured during the robbery. And I’m sure CNN will cover the cost of whatever damages the rental company wants to ring up. But there’s something just too perfect about interviewing someone about California’s high crime rates and having your car broken into while doing so.

I also noticed that Kyung Law included the word “Again” in her tweet. Apparently, this has happened before. But what was going on with the security team they hired? Thieves were able to smash out the back window, remove bags from the vehicle and run away without being caught? Something doesn’t sound right about that.

The crew shouldn’t really have been all that surprised to see this happen. A survey conducted in December showed that more than half of all San Francisco residents have been victims of theft or larceny. Those crimes included what was described as “a staggering number of car break-ins.” They were most common in areas popular with tourists.

The problem is so widespread that the San Francisco Chronicle set up a “Car Break-In Tracker” to help residents monitor the crime wave. There’s even a SF Car Breakins account on Twitter. The local CBS News outlet recorded more than 3,000 break-ins just in the month of November last year, concluding that the situation had grown “out of control.”

National Review reports that there was a partial happy ending to this story, however. Kyung Law’s bag was later recovered by someone from the San Francisco Office of Civic Engagement & Immigrant Affairs. (Don’t ask me how that happened.) Her producer’s bag was not recovered.