OAKLAND — Four members of a crew filming a television reality show in downtown Oakland were robbed at gunpoint Monday night of $50,000 worth of equipment and personal items, according to a victim and authorities.
The head of the crew said he was thrown up against a wall and that he and the other victims were forced to lay on the pavement, where the two robbers put guns to their heads and threatened them
Chris Burns, 37, an independent director of photography for the AwesomenessTV production “This Is Summer,” a reality show that follows eight 17-year-olds growing up in the Bay Area, said Wednesday the robbery “was really, really scary. It’s the most terrifying robbery I’ve ever been a part of.”
Burns, who lives in the Bay Area, said the robbery has prompted Awesomeness officials to decide they won’t film again in Oakland and that wherever they do film there will be either armed private security or police.
No security was present when the robbery happened about 10:15 p.m. Monday in a parking lot next to Mountain Mike’s Pizza, 1830 Webster St., where the crew had just wrapped up filming.
Burns said he and three other employees, all women, were in the lot and had just packed up film equipment into a truck when the two suspects confronted them with guns drawn.
He said the suspects put guns to their heads and threatened them with violence if they did not cooperate and that he pleaded with them not to hurt anyone and to take anything they wanted.
The suspects fled with Canon video cameras and lenses, monitors, chargers, batteries and carrying cases from the truck and took one of the women’s laptop and cell phone, Burns said.
“They were very systematic. I think they had been watching us,” he said.
Responding police searched the area but could not find any trace of the suspects.
Burns said they had filmed some segments of the show in Oakland before without any real problems.
He said he was aware of photographers and film and television crews robbed in Oakland and other cities before but did not think his crew would need security since they shot mostly during the day with large groups of people present. “This is the only time we were shooting at night,” he said.
Burns said he personally would film in Oakland again but would “absolutely, 100 percent be more aware and have proper security.”
“Oakland is a great place to shoot,” he said.
He said he feels bad about what happened because of the negative publicity it will generate but still feels people need to be made aware of what occurred..
Police and Crime Stoppers of Oakland are offering up to $15,000 in reward money for information leading to the arrest of the suspects. Anyone with information may call police at 510-238-3326 or Crime Stoppers at 510-777-8572.
The Bay Area has seen its fair share of of crimes — from the dark and twisted (the Satanic “Night Stalker”) to the mysterious (Zodiac killer) to the plain bizarre (��Wendy’s Finger Lady”). The following list is not comprehensive; it simply serves to highlight some of the region’s most infamous crimes. (Photo illustration by Jeff Durham/Bay Area News Group)
Chauncey Bailey: was editor of the Oakland Post when he was murdered on Aug. 2, 20117 (Bay Area News Group archives)
The Night Stalker: From June 1984 until August 1985, Richard Ramirez, who media outlets would dub the “Night Stalker,” went on a killing spree — starting in the Los Angeles area and later moving to San Francisco. Ramirez become known for leaving Satanic signs at his grisly murder scenes. In his first court appearance, he raised his hand, on which a pentagram was drawn, and yelled, “Hail Satan!” Ramirez was eventually convicted of 13 murders, as well as charges of rape, sodomy and attempted murder, among others. He was sentenced to die in the gas chamber, but he died on death row in 2013 of complications stemming from his B-cell lymphoma. (Associated Press archives)
The assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone: On Nov. 27, 1978, former San Francisco Supervisor Dan White killed Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk, the first openly gay person in the state to be elected to public office. The killings rocked the nation, sparking the “White Night” riots and popularizing the term “Twinkie defense,” which has since been used, albeit erroneously, to characterize White’s defense as attributing his behavioral changes to sugary foods. White was convicted of manslaughter — not murder — served five years and killed himself less than two years after his release. (Associated Press archives)
Zodiac killer: From December 1968 through October 1969, the Zodiac killer shot or stabbed seven Bay Area residents, mostly young couples in secluded places near Vallejo and at Lake Berryessa in Napa County, according to the official police count. He killed five people, including a San Francisco cab driver he shot in the head at point-blank range. The killer, who became known for using cryptic messages and ciphers, sent the region into a panic. The enigmatic figure inspired the first “Dirty Harry” movie (the villain in that movie’s name? Scorpio) as well as 2007’s “Zodiac.” To this day, the case is one of the most notorious unsolved mysteries in the Bay Area. (San Francisco Chronicle archives)
Helzer brothers: In 2000, Justin and Glenn Taylor Helzer (who went by Taylor) — along with roommate Dawn Godman — attempted to carry out a bizarre plan to fund a self-help group with an ultimate goal of hastening Christ’s return to Earth. The money was to come from the extortion of Taylor’s former brokerage clients and the creation of an underage prostitution service. Five people were killed in the murder-extortion plot, including guitarist Elvin Bishop’s daughter. In March 2005, the brothers were sentenced to death. Justin Helzer hanged himself in his San Quentin Prison cell in 2013. A previous suicide attempt — in which he stabbed himself in the eye with pens and pencils — had left him blind and partially paralyzed. (Bob Larson/Bay Area News Group archives)
The Polly Klaas case: On Oct. 1, 1993, 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped from her mother’s home during a slumber party in Petaluma. The large-scale search effort that ensued gained international attention. Her body was found two months later near U.S. Highway 101, 35 miles away from her home. In 1996, career felon Richard Allen Davis was convicted of Polly’s kidnap and murder. After he was found guilty, Davis raised both middle fingers and flashed them at a courtroom camera. Davis received the death penalty and remains on death row. The state’s Three Strikes Law was a direct result of this case. (Associated Press archives)
Mob lynching of Thomas Thurmond and John M. Holmes: On Nov. 26, 1933, in one of the most notorious crimes in San Jose’s history, a mob of vigilantes dragged Thomas Thurmond and John M. Holmes from the Santa Clara County Jail and lynched them in St. James Park in front of thousands of onlookers. Earlier that day, the corpse of Brooke Hart, the son of a local department store owner, had been found floating in the bay. Hart was kidnapped by Thurmond and Holmes, who, according to a confession signed by Thurmond, bound Hart with wire, hit him over the head with a concrete block, and tossed him from the San Mateo Bridge. Despite reportedly killing Hart within hours the kidnapping, Holmes and Thurmond demanded ransom from Hart’s father. (San Jose News archives)
Kidnapping of Jaycee Dugard: On June 10, 1991, while on her way to a bus stop near her South Lake Tahoe home, 11-year-old Jaycee Dugard was kidnapped by Phillip Garrido and his wife, Nancy, of Antioch. The captors held Jaycee as a sex slave in their backyard, and she bore two children by Phillip. The kids eventually were noticed by neighbors and later, when Phillip took them to the UC Berkeley campus to pass out religious literature, by police. Dugard’s captivity ended in 2009. (Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images)
The killing of Oscar Grant: In the early morning of New Year’s Day 2009, BART Police officer Johannes Mehserle shot Oscar Grant III, an unarmed 22-year-old African-American man, at the Fruitvale BART station in Oakland. Mehserle shot Grant in the back while he was restrained facedown on the platform. Footage of the shooting, taken by multiple onlookers, received widespread attention, and outrage and protests quickly ensued. Mehserle, who said he mistook his gun for his Taser, was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to two years in prison but was released early. (Cathleen Allison/Associated Press archives)
Oikos University massacre: On April 2, 2012, 43-year-old former Oikos University student One Goh went on the campus of the small Korean Christian college in Oakland and opened fire, killing seven people and injuring three others, resulting in the worst massing shooting in the state in two decades. About an hour after the killings, Goh turned himself in to police. Goh, a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic who reportedly believed the school’s administration was conspiring against him, had dropped out of the school after a fight with administrators over tuition. Five years after the rampage, Goh was sentenced to life in prison (Laura A. Oda/Bay Area News Group archives)
The Patty Hearst saga: On Feb. 4, 1974, newspaper heiress and UC Berkeley sophomore Patricia Hearst was living with her fiance in their apartment near campus when she was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army terrorist group. The ensuing period with the SLA — during which Hearst robbed banks and set off bombs — raised questions about whether she was brainwashed by the group or a willing accomplice to their crimes, an issue that is still debated. Hearst was arrested in September 1975, and she was later convicted of bank robbery and using a firearm during a felony. Hearst spent nearly two years in prison before her sentence was commuted by President Jimmy Carter. President Bill Clinton later pardoned her. (Associated Press archives)
Chili Finger Lady: Finger food, anyone? Anna Ayala gained international attention when she “discovered” a finger in her chili at a Wendy’s fast-food restaurant in San Jose in 2005. The “discovery” was actually a scam she cooked up with her husband — who acquired a human finger for $100 from a co-worker who had lost it in an accident — to bilk money out of the fast-food franchise. Wendy’s claimed to have lost $21 million because the ordeal — though fabricated — was too much to stomach for would-be customers. (Paul Sakuma/Associated Press archives)
Escape from Alcatraz: In June 1962 — the night of June 11 or the early morning of June 12 — brothers John and Clarence Anglin and Frank Morris placed papier-mache facsimiles of their own heads in their beds and and broke out of Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary through a utility corridor, apparently escaping the island on a makeshift raft. Despite intense investigation that followed the escape, it is unclear whether the trio survived the frigid waters of the San Francisco Bay. (Associated Press archives)
