Los Angeles freeway heist: Watch gunmen target victim in two-car operation

A daring robbery occurred in broad daylight on a Los Angeles area freeway Wednesday. An eyewitness video shows the aftermath of crash in which a team of robbers in two cars forced their victim off the interstate. In what appears to be a targeted heist, the robbers then approach the damaged car and take something out of the cabin. 

Reports of the heist sound like something out of a Michael Mann movie. According to KTLA 5, the gray Dodge Caravan seen in the video intentionally struck the victim’s black Alfa Romeo Giulia on I-10 just west of downtown L.A. Meanwhile, a stopped red SN95 Ford Mustang seen behind the van seems to have been collateral damage. 

As the camera records, a group of men pour out of the crashed Caravan and approach the victim’s car. They appear to be armed and are dressed in black with faces obscured by hoods. The victim is already standing outside his car, which has sustained damage with airbags deployed and coolant steam pouring out of what is likely a cracked radiator. As the robbers approach, the victim raises his hands above his head in surrender.

The thieves then help themselves to the contents of the Alfa, smashing the rear window and removing items from the trunk. Another man in a white shirt looks to be filming the chaos, and one of the robbers briefly approaches him in a threatening way. 

A white Chevy Malibu getaway car is stopped in a lane of traffic near the crash. The robbers climb into the Malibu, which takes off and exits off a nearby ramp. The crashed Dodge Caravan is abandoned on the freeway. 

“[It was] definitely targeted,” said the man who filmed the incident in an interview with KTLA. “They knew exactly what he had in the car. They were coming for that.”