Man caught on camera breaking into car in southwest Houston

HOUSTON (KTRK) -- You hear about car burglaries all the time in Houston, but rarely can you see one happen. An Eyewitness News viewer grabbed her cell phone and recorded one Friday afternoon.

"He seemed like a professional," Chino Smith said.

Smith says she noticed a man peering through the window of her car as she looked down from the second floor of her southwest Houston office building. With no valuables in sight, he moved to a Porsche parked nearby.

In the video, you can hear Smith and her co-workers shocked by what they were witnessing.

The burglar, who was driving a gold or tan four door car with paper license plates, parked for a quick getaway. The video shows him smashing both passenger side windows. He grabs what he can and takes off.

Smith says the victim told her clothes, a bag and a designer wallet was stolen. She hopes the burglar is caught.

"It's just sad. People go to work. They work hard and people like him steal," Smith added.

There are nearly 30,000 car burglaries in the city of Houston each year.