Burglars Caught On Camera Stealing Laptops Belonging To South L.A. Non-Profit

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — A South Los Angeles non-profit, Teens Exploring Technology, which serves inner city kids, has fallen victim to a car burglary caught on camera in downtown Oakland.

Security video showed a man in a hoodie breaking the back window of a silver SUV last Sunday afternoon before reaching in and taking two laptops and a backpack.

Seconds later, another man wearing a baseball cap reached into the same vehicle and stole another backpack and laptop.

The SUV owner and founder of Teens Exploring Technology, Oscar Menjivar, was seen on the footage looking devastated and being comforted by security guards.

Each lap top was worth about $3,000. The total amount of property loss was $15,000, Menjivar said. There was no insurance.

"When this happened, I felt like my entire life had disappeared," he recalled.

The burglary happened when Menjivar took six of his students to a computer seminar in Oakland.

"It did not ruin the trip. But it was really distracting from the stuff that we had to do," Christian Lopez said.

"Even though how discouraging it was, it was a reminder of what we are as a program and what we were meant to do," said Anthony Ramirez.

Lopez and Ramirez, both 15 years old, have spent a year at Teens Exploring Technology.

Menjivar said he knew what it was like to be an inner city kid seemingly with no way out and was determined to give all of his students a chance to succeed.

"You're taking inner city kids into a place where they can do better for themselves, you want to take them out of the streets and give them new opportunities and give them a better life for themselves."

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