JAMUL, Calif. (KGTV) — A brazen vehicle break-in was caught on camera in the busy parking lot of a nature preserve in East County.
“I looked to my left, and my window has a huge hole in it,” Everin Pezdek said.
A day later, Pezdek remains frustrated by the sight that shattered the calm of a morning hike with a friend.
“I was dumbfounded. [I] wasn't really processing what I was seeing,” Pezdek said.
Her Subaru Outback was parked next to her friend's Tesla in the busy parking lot of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge in Jamul.
Past 10 a.m. on Thursday, Pezdek and her friend returned from their 45-minute hike to see the mess.
“[I] walked up to the car. A couple of men were standing ahead of us,” said Pezdek.
The men had noticed her front passenger window was smashed to pieces.
A big rock rested on the driver's seat, damaging the LCD display and windshield wiper switch.
A check of her friend's Tesla cameras revealed the culprit.
In the video, a man walks by, turns around, takes out a rock and whips into the window before grabbing her backpack, which had been sitting in the front seat.
Inside the backpack: gym clothes and hundreds of dollars worth of CrossFit and other gear.
“It’s frustration more than anything,” Pezdek said.
Also stolen were more than a dozen souvenir pins and badges from family vacations.
“It’s sad. When I look at [the pins], [it] just makes me recall those moments. There is sentimentality for sure,” said Pezdek.
Pezdek may not be alone. The two men near her vehicle told her their friend's car had been targeted the previous week.
"Their friend left a backpack as well, and somebody did the exact same thing, smash and grab,” Pezdek said.
Pezdek is now hoping the video will help track the suspect down.
“He just had a boldness that was surprising … Every single one he does, he feels more emboldened,” Pezdek said.
Anyone with information on the case can call Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.
