Auto Crash Victims, Sitting Dazed in Their Vehicles, Robbed by Transients

Transients robbed three traffic accident victims as they sat dazed in their wrecked vehicles at a Skid Row intersection, Los Angeles police reported Sunday.

A police officer who had just completed her shift at the Central Traffic Bureau was headed east on 4th Street when a pickup truck ran a red light and smashed into her sports car just before midnight Saturday, said Lt. Dan Hills.

The truck rolled over and the officer’s car was heavily damaged, but the officer and two men in the truck were wearing seat belts. They suffered only minor cuts and bruises, Hills said.

The officer, whose identity was not disclosed, told investigators that the last thing she remembered was “the car door coming open and someone asking if I were all right. Then I saw my handbag being removed.”

The men in the truck were hanging upside down by the seat belts, Hills said, when the transients took one’s wallet and two jackets.

“They were all dazed when the homeless people descended on them and cleaned them out like vultures before boogying on down the street,” Hills said.