Don Ford, a reporter with KPIX5, was working on an investigation on a recent threat of car break-ins when the incident happened.
A TV news reporter became part of his own news story when he was robbed of his camera at gunpoint as he was interviewing homeowners for an investigative series about car break-ins in a San Francisco suburb, according to a report.
Don Ford, a reporter with KPIX5, was preparing for an interview regarding car thefts in the Twin Peaks area occurring after the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Authority (SFMTA) closed the access road to the popular vista point to automobile traffic at the beginning of the pandemic, CBS SF News reported.
Ford, who worked on the story on Tuesday and again on Wednesday, said he was about to interview a homeowner in the area when four men inside a white luxury sedan pulled up. Three of the men jumped out of the vehicle and approached him, he said.
“One had a gun and put it in my face and said, ‘We’re taking the camera,” Ford said.
Ford said he tried to remain calm as he told himself, "I’m not going to get shot today.”
“My whole thought at the moment was, ‘Be calm. Let’s not get this guy excited. He’s got the gun. I don’t,'” he said.
Ford said the entire encounter took less than a minute. He told CBS SF that he was shaken, but luckily unharmed.
The assailants fled with the camera, but the device — which had a tracking chip — was recovered later Wednesday, cops told the New York Post.
A neighbor told KPIX that thieves have gotten more brazen and he was concerned something like this would happen.
No arrests have been announced in connection to the theft, the Post reported.
City Supervisor Rafael Mandelman wrote about the robbery on Twitter and called the incident “ridiculous and unacceptable, but not entirely unexpected.”
“We need to adequately resource public safety agencies, adopt better strategies to stop repeat offenders and make clear that San Francisco is not a place that you can commit crimes and put people’s lives at risk with impunity,” he wrote.
The SFMTA said in a statement on Wednesday that they were “saddened to hear about what happened,” and that the agency plan approved Tuesday by the SFMTA Board of Directors would “enhance safety and accessibility to the Twin Peaks area for all."
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