Victim frustrated by police response after car broken into at Lake Merritt

OAKLAND, Calif. (KRON) - An East Bay resident is speaking out about her experience as a victim of a smash-and-grab in Oakland.

The victim says it happened last month but she's now sharing her story after she says she got nowhere with police when filing a report and trying to share a video of the suspects with the department.

Cell phone video captured yet another smash-and-grab at Lake Merritt in Oakland.

The victim, Homa Clifford, says when she returned to her car, she found shattered glass and a note left by a witness, alerting her that they were able to grab this video of the suspects.

“I filed a report on the link that they gave me to go. There is no link to upload any pictures or videos. So you basically tell your story and submit it so I waited to get at least something from them either via email or phone call to follow up, nothing,” Clifford said.

Clifford expressed her frustrations with the handling of the case.

“It's kind of scary to see they don't even respond, especially when you have a video clip and that they have some kind of evidence to go after that you know maybe they'll find another crime that happened by these people. When they just brush that under the carpet without any caring that is not going to give me any sense of security honestly to go in that area anymore. I'm not going to Oakland for any reason by myself anymore,” Clifford said. 

She says she now worries that these same suspects will continue breaking into cars or worse after getting away with it.

“The system is failing here because if they let these people to just get off with break-ins and not paying attention to them and not being punished then this is a green light for criminals like this. It starts from car break-in to house break-in to murder, to bigger break-in,” Clifford said. 

Meanwhile, Oakland police have been sounding the alarm for a while now saying they're underfunded and understaffed. 

KRON4 reached out to Oakland police Thursday night about this case but has not heard back yet. It's still unclear if possible staffing problems lead to backups on non-violent, property crimes like this one.

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