A California freshman and his family were renting a car to take them to school when thieves broke into the vehicle and stole all of their belongings, including $3,000 in cash and their passports.
The boy’s parents are planning to withdraw him from the school due to concerns about safety in the state. According to KTVU.
Romelle Crossman and her family flew into the Bay Area from Coconut Creek, Fla., on Saturday to enroll in classes at Lincoln University in Oakland.
Fresh out of Coconut Creek High School, Crossman has committed to play football as a defensive tackle at an independent university in California. X posts from February.
Once in California, the family got into a white Nissan Rogue rented from Thrifty and drove to Oakland.
They parked their SUV about a block away from the private university at about 6:15 p.m., left five suitcases inside and went to a nearby Jamaican restaurant to get a meal.
When the family returned 15 minutes later, they found the SUV’s windows smashed, glass scattered on the ground, and all of their belongings missing.
“In Oakland, California, you just have to be careful,” Crossman’s mother, Nerissa Murray Watson, told the outlet. “Everything’s just gone.”
Witnesses told the family they saw masked men driving a car without license plates in broad daylight, an increasingly common phenomenon in the Bay Area.
“It just seems so strange to me because I had no idea this was happening in America,” Murray Watson added.
The lost belongings included not only clothing but also very important personal documents.
“The bag my husband placed under the seat contained $3,000, three passports, a Social Security card, our son’s high school diploma and birth certificate,” Murray Watson said of the stolen items.
A sleep apnea device was also taken from the car.
“Now when she wakes up she doesn’t feel rested and her heart feels like it’s racing,” said Crossman’s aunt, Koren Leslie Green.
The family claims they called 911 multiple times after the break-in but were told to go to the police station to report it.
“I called the police three times and they said they couldn’t come, so to me that’s lawless,” she said.
After a few days passed and little relief was given, the family decided Lincoln University was not the right fit for them.
“I have to get my son back to Florida because it’s not safe here,” she said.
of City of Oakland says Overall crime is down 33 percent compared to the same period last year, and car thefts are down 60 percent, but some groups say the figures are skewed.
“We should compare the figures over a longer period of time, not just the difference between this year and last year,” Auckland Police Association president Sergeant Huy Nguyen said. According to KGO. “We need to reduce numbers to a level where our community feels safe.”
The media outlet said overall crime over the past 12 months was down 15.8% compared to the full year of 2023, with robberies fluctuating depending on the period.
“Every time summer rolls around, violent crime in the city goes up. Sideshow activity goes up. It’s normal for us,” Sergeant Nguyen said.
To keep students safe, UC Berkeley is warning students not to leave belongings in their cars and educating them on best safety practices during freshman orientation, according to KTVU.
