NEW ORLEANS - It's a car theft like you've probably never seen it. The incident happened around 2:30 a.m. Sunday on the 900 block of Robert E. Lee Boulevard.
"People are desperate to get a car sometimes they'll do whatever needs to happen," said Mark Johnson.
The video is crazy to watch and shows how far someone will go to steal something, in this case, Julien Chouest's car.
"Well it's very violating," Chouest said. "I'm sleeping in my house and they have these individuals stealing my car that I worked hard to pay for."
Two men are seen walking up to the Jeep early Sunday morning. Blocked in the driveway by another car, the men try and maneuver the Jeep out. After several minutes, and collisions with the house next door, they use the neighbor's driveway to pull out and drive-off.
"This guy was just hanging out. He moved the garbage can like three or four times," described Chouest. "They hit the house here and they hit it here and they ripped a column off. This was like a stroll in the park for them. They didn't seem to worry about cars passing by. They do this on the regular, one guy was wearing sandals."
While bizarre, residents say the video shows a growing problem in the neighborhood.
"I think this past weekend, Saturday at 7 a.m., they came down our street and pulled on our car doors and I'm sure they do it all the time," said Erin Ryan. "A neighbor happened to be awake and saw as they were doing it."
According to WWL Crime Analyst, Jeff Asher, they're right. So far this year, Lakeview has reported 41 car burglaries and 13 auto thefts. More than half of those cases have happened since June first.
"Why is it happening more often? Because I think people are leaving their doors unlocked," said Ryan. "It's become a big issue here in this neighborhood. So basically people need to lock their doors. I don't know why people are forgetting that. We're very aware of it, it's frustrating but at the same time you need to take measures to keep your car safe and your family safe."
"Even a locked car doesn't really stop everybody," said Johnson. "So it's about A) locking your car and B) not leaving anything enticing to someone passing by."
As for Chouest, the past few days have been tough because it wasn't just his car that was stolen, it was his peace of mind.
"It's really sad people can take such disregard for people's possessions they worked so hard for," said Chouest.
Jade Cunningham can be reached at jcunningham@wwltv.com.