'I wish this was not our world': Brazen crook smashes window of car stuck in traffic, climbs halfway inside, steals terrified driver's purse and backpack

Shocking surveillance video shows the moment a brazen crook hopped out of a car on an Oakland street in the middle of the day, smashed the side window of a car that had just become stuck in traffic, KGO-TV reported.

What are the details?

The driver didn't want to go on camera with KGO, but the victim told reporter Dion Lim that she had just departed a bank Wednesday and was stuck in traffic on Broadway at 22nd when the smash-and-grab crime occurred.

"I was yelling and looking at him, and we made eye contact," the victim told KGO. She added to Lim that she thought she was going to die.

Lim noted in another tweet that being stuck in traffic prevented the driver from escaping.

The victim was left "understandably shaken, even several days following the incident ..." Lim noted in her KGO story, adding that she was so afraid she didn't want to appear on camera.

In fact, Lim tweeted that the woman told her she didn't leave her house for days after the incident: "I wish this was not our world."

Lim also said the victim told her it took awhile for anyone to offer help — in fact, it wasn't for another 30 minutes that anyone called police. Lim added that it was her understanding that the victim's phone was stolen in the incident.

KGO said police are using the surveillance video in their investigation and are asking anyone with information to come forward.

Lim spoke to a pair of pedestrians and showed them the surveillance video of the incident — and they were shocked.

"It seems like these criminals, it just doesn't matter what day, what time, where they're at, [if] they're gonna do something, they just seem to do it," one woman told the station.

Image source: KGO-TV video screenshot

Anything else?

Although law enforcement sources told KGO while such a brazen break-in may seem unusual, it's not the first time there have been break-ins and robberies against motorists operating their vehicles.

The station said two real estate photographers in a car were approaching an on-ramp in San Francisco in February when someone jumped out of another car, smashed their rear window, and stole equipment. The photographers had just departed a photoshoot, the station said.

Oakland police told KGO they've seen a 115% increase in armed carjackings this year compared to last year.