The San Francisco Chronicle reports that KPIX-TV news has been victimized in Oakland again. For the second time in two years, its crew had thieves steal personal items while the crew was conducting a live broadcast.
On Thursday morning at roughly 11:15 a.m., reporter Anne Makovec, cameraman Gregg Welk, and security guard Jim Macedo were shooting a “man on the street” interview about the Oakland A’s outside a Starbucks coffee shop in the city’s Fruitvale District. Macedo is a former UC Berkeley officer.
While the crew was preoccupied with the story, a thief burgled the news van, escaping with a laptop computer and personal belongings. There was a witness who notified the crew, but the thief had already fled the scene.
It isn’t just KPIX that has been victimized in Oakland; in June, KTVU reporter Heather Holmes was conducting a live interview near Oakland police headquarters when her purse was taken from the TV truck.
The situation has gotten so bad that many stations have hired security guards, some former police officers, to watch over their crews.