Author Shelby Steele’s car broken into in San Francisco, $30K worth of camera gear stolen

Hoover Institution fellow and conservative author Shelby Steele became a victim of San Francisco’s crime crisis when his car was broken into and burglarized on Wednesday.

The burglary took place on Hyde and Lombard Streets in the city’s Russian Hill neighborhood at around 11 a.m. Steele’s son Eli said on Twitter that they had stepped away from the vehicle for a mere 10 minutes before they were burglarized.

Pictures posted by Eli show his father looking solemnly at the broken windows of their rental car. Eli estimated that they lost $25,000 to $30,000 worth of equipment, not including the damage done to the vehicle. The pair had been shooting a documentary about San Francisco at the time.

Eli also claimed that he was hung up on by 911 operators twice when he reported the crime.

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“SF police doing nothing,” Eli wrote on Twitter. “It’s so bad that my friend is calling gang members for help.”

When Eli arrived at the police station, he reportedly encountered even more carjacking victims. He reported that he saw suspects inspecting cars outside the station until onlookers shooed them away. 

“We yelled at them. They pulled a gun on my friend,” Eli wrote on Twitter. “He’s filing his report now. Not one police officer showed up.”

“People asking where this was. On top of famous Lombard Street,” Eli added. “One of richest neighborhoods in SF and America. I’ve worked dangerous neighborhoods for years and nothing like this.”

Twitter CTO Elon Musk responded to Steele’s tweet, telling him that Twitter employees faced similar crimes in San Francisco.

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“Many Twitter employees feel unsafe coming to work in downtown SF and have had their car windows smashed,” Musk wrote. “They also got such a null response from the police that they rarely even bother reporting crimes anymore, because nothing happens.”

San Francisco Republican Party Chairman John Dennis told Fox News Digital that he was “saddened, but not surprised” by the situation.

“The Steeles interviewed me in my courtyard for nearly two hours yesterday for an upcoming documentary,” Dennis explained. “Sometime after leaving my home, thieves showed the Steeles what San Francisco is all about these days – victimizing decent, hardworking people.”

“San Francisco is run by incompetents. Shelby and Eli Steele learned that directly. It hurts to say this about the place I love to live [in], but stay away from San Francisco until crime is contained,” the statement added.

The San Francisco Police Department told Fox News Digital that they are currently investigating the crime.

“Officers have documented this incident,” a spokesperson explained. “No arrests have been made. This is an active and ongoing investigation.”