{"id":37949,"date":"2025-11-04T19:41:10","date_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:41:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37949\/"},"modified":"2025-11-04T19:41:10","modified_gmt":"2025-11-04T19:41:10","slug":"surveillance-video-shows-suspects-in-oakland-museum-storage-facility-heist-of-1000-items","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/37949\/","title":{"rendered":"Surveillance video shows suspects in Oakland museum storage facility heist of 1,000+ items"},"content":{"rendered":"

The FBI and Oakland police are asking for the public’s help identifying two suspects accused of stealing more than 1,000 items<\/a> from an off-site storage facility belonging to the Oakland Museum of California.<\/p>\n

Surveillance video shows the suspects during the break-in, which happened on October 15 in the middle of the night. It’s unclear if security was in place at the facility, which museum officials say is not always staffed.<\/p>\n

“I see an opportunity where things could have been different, is the presence of on-site security, because while obviously electronic monitoring has its value from a documentation perspective, there is a difference between monitoring and security,” said Derek Morgan, a security executive with CSUSA Security.<\/p>\n

“It’s like a it’s like an abandoned house, you know, that there’s an alarm. But people still break in houses every day.” Director of Operations James Recio said.<\/p>\n

Among the stolen pieces are cultural artifacts and historic items. Former FBI Special Agent Robert Wittman, who helped launch the bureau’s Art Crime Team, says most museum thefts involve an insider.<\/p>\n

“Usually when you have an off-site security area or a storage area, you’re going to have a certain amount of security there,” Wittman said. “Generically speaking, you wouldn’t even know where the storage area was, that wouldn’t be a public thing out there.”<\/p>\n

PREVIOUS: Over 1,000 artifacts stolen from Oakland Museum of CA storage facility in ‘brazen act’<\/a><\/p>\n

Thieves broke into a storage facility belonging to the Oakland Museum of California and made off with more than 1,000 items, police said Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Wittman explained that in his experience, 89% of museum thefts in the U.S. have an insider component involved.<\/p>\n

“Hopefully this is part of that 11% where no one else was involved,” said Wittman.<\/p>\n

This case, however, doesn’t appear to be a sophisticated, targeted operation, but rather a ‘crime of opportunity,’ according to museum officials.<\/p>\n

Wittman reviewed the surveillance video and agreed, noting the suspects appeared to wander and take their time, grabbing whatever they could.<\/p>\n

“They were just kind of meandering to a certain degree,” Wittman said. “I don’t think they really knew what they were looking for. I mean, they were just walking around trying to take a shot at whatever they could get.”<\/p>\n

He also pointed out a key mistake: wearing identifiable clothing.<\/p>\n

“Somebody is going to look at that and say, ‘Oh, I know that guy,'” he said.<\/p>\n

In his more than 20-year FBI career, Wittman recovered $300 million worth of stolen art. He says if his international art security firm<\/a> were leading the case, he would first conduct a forensic investigation.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure the evidence response team from the FBI and from the Oakland Police have already done that,” Wittman said.<\/p>\n

Next, he’d look at surveillance on site but also in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n

“Tire treads, how they made their getaway, how they were, the kind of car they were driving. All of that would be important,” Wittman said.<\/p>\n

He would also offer a reward for the artifacts’ return.<\/p>\n

“Not necessarily the prosecution of any individuals, just the recovery of the artifacts.”<\/p>\n

Since the artifacts stolen are so unique, Wittman believes it’s only a matter of time before the suspects are caught.<\/p>\n

“They’re going to be better thieves than they are business. They don’t really know what they’re going to do with the art,” said Wittman. “The real art and art heist isn’t in the stealing. It’s knowing what to do with it once you have it.”<\/p>\n

But Wittman warns of another risk: the possibility that the suspects destroy the artifacts to avoid being caught.<\/p>\n

“Now the only problem is if they try to destroy it rather than be caught with it. That’s what’s scary and terrifying about the situation, because you don’t want to lose those artifacts,” he said. “They’re much more important than they are financially, much more important to the community.”<\/p>\n

Authorities are urging anyone with information to contact Oakland Police at 510-238-3951 or submit a tip to the FBI at tips.fbi.gov. Tips can remain anonymous.<\/p>\n

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If you’re on the ABC7 News app, click here to watch live<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The FBI and Oakland police are asking for the public’s help identifying two suspects accused of stealing more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37950,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1055,23672,143,145,2536,144,2452,26315,21778,1388],"class_list":["post-37949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-fbi","tag-museum-officials","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-museum-of-california","tag-oakland-news","tag-oakland-police","tag-robert-wittman","tag-storage-facility","tag-surveillance-video"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37949","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37949"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37949\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37949"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37949"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37949"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}