A brazen thief Monday night reached into a KTVU news vehicle steps away from where a reporter was doing a live report, stealing her purse.
The incident took place near the Oakland Police Headquarters building in downtown Oakland around 10 p.m.
KTVU’s Heather Holmes and a photographer were working on a story about a violent assault in the city’s Temescal District. A woman was mugged and beaten in broad daylight earlier in the day.
Holmes said she chose to do her report in front of Oakland’s police headquarters instead of the site of the afternoon attack because she thought it would be safer.
KTVU provides security to its crews as needed, but Holmes said they didn’t feel security was necessary because they felt safe being so close to police headquarters.
She said she had put her purse in the news vehicle and then walked a few steps away to be live for the ten o’clock news.
“I could see the van,” she said.
When Holmes and her photographer returned to the van after their live report was completed, they discovered her bag, containing cash, credit cards and other personal items, had been stolen.
“Someone tried to use my credit card a few minutes later at a nearby Chevron station,” she said.
A police report was filed with the Oakland Police Department.
