SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KRON) - Another community effort is underway in San Francisco to help prevent car break-ins from happening.
A local nonprofit called Community Stream is deploying volunteers to tourist attractions in the city, leaving friendly reminders on visitors' cars to remove all of their belongings.
It may be a simple act but it definitely goes a long way.
Through education, visitors can prevent themselves from becoming the next victim.
The nonprofit started this effort this week after seeing and hearing about the daily smash and grabs and said it's only going to get worse as more tourists come to the area over the holidays.
This sight of shattered glass and people reaching or hanging out of cars is far too common in San Francisco, as smash and grabs become more brazen and visible.
It's why neighbors in the city and Bay Area are now stepping up to do something about it.
“I think when we saw the news that every single day something was happening. We have all the security footage in the world to show that it's happening so we really thought to ourselves it doesn't seem like we can intervene physically but what can we do? So this is something we got underway this week and we'll continue to do throughout the holidays because it's a high tourist season as well,” Brian Young said.
Brian Young with a nonprofit called community stream says there are about 10 volunteers, including himself, who are now visiting tourist destinations in the city and warning visitors.
“We made a bunch of flyers and business cards. When we walk around town we have a bunch of volunteers in a few different cities and we notice a car that might have a bunch of valuables in it, we just leave a note for them saying, "Hey we don't want you to get your photography equipment stolen. We don't want you to get your wedding photographs stolen and so we just leave a short card saying hey we're looking out for you,” Young said.
While San Francisco has its own signs posted near places like Lombard Street, they often go unnoticed by excited visitors just arriving into town.
That's why Young says they place these cards on the driver side window, in plain sight with a message similar to this one.
“At the very least what we can do is to raise awareness to help people make sure they protect their valuables, to understand that this is going on and let's do our best to make sure that every car seems unattractive to break into and I think that will go a long way for the tourists and even the locals who have their guards down for about five minutes,” Young said.
This is the second community-led effort that we focused on this week, that's working to address and improve the rampant car thefts and break-ins.
While many of us can feel helpless in these situations, it goes to show that people out there really want to do something about these crimes, no matter how big or small the act may be.
from KRON4 https://ift.tt/3x9cWZB
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