A neighbour’s security cameras captured the moment an attempted car theft took place in Calgary’s Woodbine neighbourhood.
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At around 8:20 a.m. Friday, police said a driver left his vehicle running on Woodbine Boulevard S.W. while he went inside to grab something from his house.
The car owner is a father whose two young children were in the car at the time.
Police said another man then jumped into the vehicle with the driver’s two children.
Police said the homeowner’s daughter was screaming and crying. The suspect then took off.
The girl’s father told Global News the incident happened extremely quickly and he felt embarrassed about leaving his children in the car.
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His five-year-old daughter was quite shaken but appeared to be fine a few hours later, he said.
The entire incident was captured on a neighbour’s video surveillance cameras.
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Roberta Leung and Martin Szydlowski said when they saw police in the area, they immediately checked their security video.
It showed a man leaving a white SUV a few houses down and getting into the father’s vehicle. Moments later, he is seen running out of the black truck and leaving in the white SUV.
Leung and Szydlowski said they installed their video cameras when their truck was broken into two months ago.
Their garage door opener was stolen from their unlocked truck and thieves were able to access the garage and stole several tools and a bike.
“It scared us,” Leung said. “We took the day off from work. The cops came and we installed five or six different cameras around the house.”
Leung said she feels bad for her neighbours because leaving a car running with the keys inside is such a common thing.
“It’s so brazen to think that it would happen during the day… The thought of that is so scary,” she said.
“The fact that there were kids in the car is really scary.”
Since 5:30 a.m., Calgary police said 12 vehicles were stolen Friday. It’s unclear if the keys were left in the cars.