SAN ANTONIO — Suspected car burglars are being caught on camera night after night by residents on the northwest side. Neighbors say in many cases, the criminals are armed.
One neighbor says he caught a trio of them in the act. The man asked to remain anonymous for his own safety. He said he knew something was wrong when a car pulled up across the street with its lights off.
"Their getaway car is moving, and they're running from one house to the other," the neighbor explained.
The incident happened Saturday, just minutes after midnight in a neighborhood off Braun and Tezel Road. The neighbor said he witnessed two people get out of the white vehicle and start pulling on car door handles.
He said he tried to stop it. He never expected what happened next.
"They're on a death wish," he told KENS 5. "They are going to hit the wrong house at the wrong time."
Moments before the shooting, the neighbor said he was inside his garage listening to music and unwinding from a night shift.
His garage light wasn't on, so he was able to see across the street a little more clearly at night. When he saw the suspected criminals tugging on his neighbor's car doors, he shouted at them twice to stop.
"I am a health care provider. I consider myself a first responder," he explained. "Something happens, we respond and we help."
In startling the criminals, they ran back into their vehicle. But, as surveillance video shows, before they hopped in, they shot at the neighbor at least three times.
"I think what tripped them is, yes, I hollered at them, but I must have stepped forward and triggered my garage light because then it lit up and then the shots went off," said the neighbor.
Two bullets hit a tree. One pierced the garage wall. The suspects drove off. What they didn't realize was they took off toward a dead-end, forcing them to pass by the neighbor's home again. He took cover between two vehicles, and anticipated more gunshots that fortunately never came.
About five minutes up the road in the Parkwood neighborhood off Prue Road, another trio of suspected criminals were captured on camera.
"They're definitely armed. You can clearly see it in the pictures," said Ben Bush, whose surveillance video caught the trio in the act around 2 a.m. on Thursday.
Bush says this attempted burglary happened almost exactly one year after another similar incident in his driveway.
"I don't know if it's a ring, if they're doing it for adults," said Bush. "Kids do dumb things, but not like this. It's too over the top."
Nothing was taken from Bush's vehicles. Although the other neighbor says nothing was technically stolen from him either, he still has to pay to repair the bullet hole in his garage.
"Yeah, they didn't steal anything, but I'm still getting robbed," he explained. "I still have to pay for the repairs...I'm looking at about a $2,000 bill."
San Antonio Police are investigating this series of break-ins and attempted break-ins. If you have any information, call SAPD.
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