About once a month, Yesenia Curiel goes to the Forest Lawn cemetery in Covina to visit her niece’s grave.
She parks her car just a few feet away and walks over to leave fresh flowers. Curiel has been doing this for the past 20 years, but her most recent visit took a bad turn when someone broke into her vehicle, stealing two laptops and multiple credit cards – and she witnessed it all.
“Being by myself, I was just really shocked,” said Curiel. “I look up because I hear something. I see a body stretched out in the back seat like they’re getting things, and then I have my mom on the phone, and I’m kind of screaming at them, ‘What are you doing?'”
Curiel said she locked her car but the thief was able to get in by shattering her back window. He jumped into the passenger seat of a getaway car and took off, according to Curiel.
She said she wasn’t able to get a clear look at what the thief and the driver looked like, but said they were two men wearing dark clothing who drove off in a tan Nissan sedan.