CNN news team robbed in San Francisco while working on street crime story

San Francisco, California - CNN Senior National Correspondent Kyung Lah and a senior producer were robbed in San Francisco while working on a story about "rampant street crime."

A CNN news team was robbed in San Francisco while working on a story on street crime.
A CNN news team was robbed in San Francisco while working on a story on street crime.  © Collage: Screenshot/Twitter/KyungLahCNN

"Got robbed. Again," Lah tweeted on Friday afternoon.

Lah said she and CNN’s Jason Kravarik were inside City Hall when thieves smashed their way into a car being watched by security guards and made off with items including her passport. According to Lah, who posted a photo of a smashed rear window, the thieves were gone in under four seconds.

"But seriously – this is ridiculous," she wrote.

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Security guards hired to watch the CNN team’s rental car and equipment car reportedly gave chase, but the crooks pulled away in a black Infiniti with California plates.

The CNN guards got a picture of the car and its license plate as it sped off.

Lah worried she wouldn’t be able to fly back to her home base in LA because her identification was in one of the stolen bags. According to the reporter, Southwest Airlines said it isn’t uncommon for travelers to have their bags stolen in San Francisco and gave her a plane ticket after a security check.

Lah and her team spent three days in “beautiful” San Francisco, but warned that even with hired muscle keeping guard, cars aren’t safe on city streets. A couple of hours after the robbery, Lah got good news.

"OMG!!! My bag was recovered!" she later tweeted.

Kravarik’s stolen bag remained missing. He, too, works out of CNN’s Los Angeles bureau. Automobile break-ins are an ongoing issue in the Bay Area, according to multiple news reports.

NBC News reported San Francisco experiences an average of 74 break-ins daily.

Cover photo: Collage: Screenshot/Twitter/KyungLahCNN

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