Brooklyn residents on 86th Street have been urged to be more vigilant in recent days, as a new suspicious method targeting parked vehicles has caught the attention of the community. On May 27th, a surveillance video circulated in a WeChat group showed a young couple parking a black sedan on the side of the road and then getting out of the car, during which a stranger appeared to deliberately tamper with the vehicle.
In the footage, the young couple exited the car from the driver’s side and the passenger side respectively. At that moment, an African-American man wearing a white hat stood about three cement bricks or approximately 3 meters away from the car, waiting and observing. As the woman closed the passenger side door and walked towards the front of the car, the man quickly approached the rear side of the car, opened the back door slightly, leaving a gap, and then continued walking forward.
Meanwhile, the young man, after getting out of the driver’s seat, seemed to be attracted by something on the ground, briefly looked down, and then closed the door again. Neither of them noticed anything unusual throughout this incident. They then held hands and walked across to the other side of the street, completely unaware that the back door on the sidewalk side had not been securely shut.
Based on the video, the actions of the stranger African-American man appeared to be intentional. Though the surveillance clip was only about 21 seconds long, the subsequent developments have raised concerns among many residents, who are questioning whether this could be a new tactic for car theft or opportunistic theft of valuables inside cars. Some neighbors have advised that before leaving a parked car, in addition to ensuring that the doors are locked, it is also wise to walk around the vehicle to inspect it, to avoid giving criminals an opportunity to strike.