Posted on 01/10/2024 5:15:11 PM PST by Twotone
A man arrested for car burglary in San Francisco was caught on video by a YouTuber who set up an elaborate prank, but an investigation found that he had been recently been released by a judge on previous charges related to car burglary.
YouTuber and former NASA engineer Mark Rober baited car burglars by setting up cameras on a car that had a rigged backpack inside. When burglars cracked the car window and stole the backpack, it would later emit a foul odor and announce a countdown to scare the robbers.
He also installed bulletproof glass in one car just to watch burglars impotently try to break the glass to get to their booty.
Rober then took things a step farther and obtained help from KGO-TV reporter Dan Noyes, who looked into identifying the alleged burglars by looking up the license plates to the cars they drove to commit the burglaries. While he found that most used stolen license plates to conceal their identities, one man drove his car with his regular license plate, and they were able to identify him.
30-year-old Charvel Augustine of San Francisco is recorded on video smashing the window to one of Rober's bait cars and grabbing a backpack from inside. Another video from inside the backpack shows him open up and peer inside before abandoning it after it deploys the foul odor and starts counting down.
"Fart spray cannon fired!" reads a message automatically texted from the bag.
Augustine is then caught on video allegedly stealing a second backpack from another one of Rober's bait cars an hour later.
When Noyes looked into Augustine's past, he found that the man had been released days previously by a judge over charges related to car burglary. When he failed to appear, a judge issued a $35,000 bench warrant. He had been charged with second-degree burglary of vehicle and possession of burglar tools.
Police said that they had recovered U.S., Indian, and Euro currency from the suspect's car, as well as watches and jewelry.
Despite this, the judge released him on his own reconnaissance.
"The judges are showing poor judgment there"
"Looks like it would be easily settle-able," said Judge Loretta Giorgi on Oct. 9 when she dropped the bench warrant.
Three days later, Augustine was caught on video by Rober's bait cars and also videotaped by police allegedly burglarizing two other cars.
Frank Noto of Stop Crime SF told KGO that this incident is not unusual in the courts.
"That's just crazy," Noto said. "The judges are showing poor judgment there. They're saying this criminal is not going to commit a crime, at least not pending trial. But they're dead wrong."
Noyes noted that Augustine appeared to wear designer jeans to court that were very similar to those he wore while allegedly committing the car burglaries.
He pleaded not guilty, and his public defender told KGO that he was "loving and kind" and takes care of his sick grandmother. She also claimed that incarceration did nothing to deter car burglaries.
Rober has more than 4.6 billion views on his various videos on YouTube.
That seems to be their central role these days.
It passed spell check, so that's good enough.
Ah, he’s the “Squirrelympics” guy...
He’s good, but Shane from “Stuff Made Here” is scary smart.
OH Yeah...
Maybe he was instructed to keep an eye on himself when he was released?
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