A burglar learned a painful lesson after breaking into a truck in New Orleans. Surveillance video captured the suspect smashing the window of a white truck and crawling inside.
A few seconds later, a small explosion can be seen inside the truck, causing the burglar hits his head on the door frame. The burglar then jumped into a waiting vehicle and fled the scene.
The owner of the truck, who asked not to be identified, told WVUE that he rigged his truck with a flashbang after dealing with repeated break-ins.
“To see him like gleefully walk up and just smash my eighth window in the past couple months and jump in and then you know to see the detonation go off and his reaction,” the man told the news station. “I don’t want this guy to die for what he did, but I don’t want him to just be able to smash and grab and run away."
The man said that he decided to take matters into his hands because local officials have failed to reign in the out-of-control crime in the city.
“Leadership has failed and more ways than one when it comes to this situation, just crime in the area, like, I reported to the police almost every time and I don’t blame the police for this, they’re understaffed and like there’s too much crime. I really blame the fact that like these, these people get caught, and then they basically get bailed out,” he said.
There have been no arrests made in the case. The New Orleans Police Department advised against booby-trapping your vehicle because it could harm somebody and is illegal.
"While we understand the frustrations our citizens have with crime, rigging an explosive device to detonate inside a vehicle is illegal and a bad idea," the department said in a statement. "Not only is there a risk of injury to yourself and others, there could be serious legal ramifications for everyone involved."