An incoming California college student and his family were robbed of all their belongings, including $3,000 and their passports when thieves broke into their rental car as he was being dropped off for school.
The teen’s parents have since planned to disenroll him from the school over safety fears in the state, according to KTVU.
Rhomel Crossman and his family had flown into the Bay area from Coconut Creek, Fla. on Saturday to register for classes at Lincoln University in Oakland.
Crossman, who had just graduated from Coconut Creek High School, committed to play football as a defensive tackle at the independent California-based university, according to an X post from February.
Once they arrived in the Golden State, the family got into a white Nissan Rogue that they had rented from car rental Thrifty and drove to Oakland.
They parked the SUV a block from the private university around 6:15 p.m. before heading to a nearby Jamaican restaurant to pick up food, leaving their five suitcases inside the car.
The family returned 15 minutes later and discovered the SUV’s windows were smashed out, glass scattered around the ground and all of their belongings inside gone.
“In Oakland, California, you just gotta be careful,” Crossman’s mother, Nerissa Murray Watson told the outlet. “Everything is totally gone.”
A witness told the family they saw masked men driving around in a car without any license plates in broad daylight, an increasingly common occurrence in the Bay Area.
“I didn’t know that these things happen in America so it’s really strange to me,” Murray Watson added.
The missing possessions not only included clothing but also very important and personal documents.
“Three thousand dollars in a bag my husband put under the seat with three passports, social security cards, and my son’s high school diploma and birth certificate,” Murray Watson said of the stolen items
A sleep apnea machine was also taken from the car.
“Now, I start feeling my heart like it’s pounding in the morning instead of feeling rested,” said Coren Leslie-Green, Crossman’s aunt.
The family claimed they called 911 multiple times after the break-in, but were told they had to go to a police station to file a report.
“To me, it’s lawless because we even called the police three times and they said they can’t come,” she said.
After a long couple of days, with little to no reassurance, the family has decided Lincoln University isn’t right for them.
“I have to bring back my son to Florida because it’s not safe here,” she said.
The city of Oakland says overall crime is down 33% compared to this time last year and there have been 60% fewer car break-ins, but some organizations say the numbers have been skewed.
“We should compare our numbers to a lengthy amount of time. Not just the difference between this year and last year,” Sergeant Huy Nguyen, President of the Oakland Police Officers’ Association said, according to KGO. “We have to bring our numbers down to a level where our community feels a sense of safety.”
Overall crime over the last 12 months when compared to all of 2023 is down by 15.8% and robberies fluctuate depending on the given time period, according to the outlet.
“Every time we roll into the beginning of summer, we will see an increase in violent crimes across the city. The increase of sideshows. That is just the norm for us,” said Sgt. Nguyen.
To keep their students safe, UC Berkeley says they issue warnings to not leave belongings in cars and it educates incoming students during orientation about best safety practices, according to KTVU.
