NEW ORLEANS — When Krista Dobronich got her whtie Mercedes SUV in August of 2021, she planned to hold on to it for a while.
“I have a two-year-old son so he’s getting in a bigger car seat, so we needed more room,” Dobronich said. “It was perfect.”
Thieves thought it was perfect too. While Dobronich and her boyfriend were inside their New Orleans home the night of January 6th, her SUV was stolen. Dobronich says it was there when they got home a littler earlier.
“It happened in the matter of, I think it was like 24 minutes,” Dobronich said.
Dobronich thinks her boyfriend’s truck, which had her keys in it, may have been unlocked.
“When we got into his truck the next morning the glove compartment was open and the middle console was open,” Dobronich said. “I’m assuming they kind of went through his truck first and then seen the keys and then took the car.”
She thought her SUV would be end up being abandoned somewhere. Then she got facebook notifications Monday.
“Everyone’s tagging me in it, like is this your car, is this your car, and it was my car,” Dobronich said.
Dobronich has no doubt her SUV is the one caught on home surveillance video Sunday night in the Oak Forrest Subdivision in Jefferson Parish. In the video, two people get out of a white SUV, walk up to other cars, and appear to grab door handles.
“When I first seen my car in the video my heart just sunk. It’s a scary thing to see your car being used for other crimes,” Dobronich said.
Dobronich says those crimes are way too common in New Orleans.
“You go to like a Saints game, a Pelicans game, if your car is there, you kind of come out saying I hope my car didn’t get broken into,” Dobronich said. “You kind of expect it.”
Dozens of cars were broken into near the Caesar’s Superdome and Smoothie King Center during recent Saints and Pelicans games. An employee who works near one of the parking lots says it’s a growing problem.
“You’ve got a lot of people coming in and out of town and they park here, they just walk through and say, ‘Oh, it’s an easy target, they’re at the game,’” said the employee.
Thankful she wasn’t in her SUV at the time or walk out of her home as it was stolen, Dobronich worries about her safety and the safety of her city.
“It’s just getting harder and harder to defend this city,” Dobronich said.
Dobronich says she tried to file a report with the New Orleans Police Department but never heard back. She eventually got a report done but says it took about a week for her SUV to be listed as stolen.
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