BATON ROUGE – When Lionel Rainey III awoke June 23 to a number of textual content messages from neighbors, he knew one thing was up. It wasn’t till he referred to as considered one of them that he knew his residence had been the goal of in a single day assailants.
“He stated, ‘hey man, I’ve your license and registration, and your insurance coverage, it is within the highway,'” Rainey recalled. “‘Your automobile’s been stolen.'”
Rainey would finally watch the moments main as much as thieves taking his automobile on safety footage from cameras put in on Hunters Court docket within the Willow Ridge neighborhood.
Video timestamped 3:41 a.m., exhibits a number of folks strolling up and down the road, no less than considered one of them masked and armed with a handgun.
“This regarded like a scene from the purge,” Rainey stated. “There have been 4 or 5 armed gunmen in our neighborhood, strolling residence to residence.”
Minutes later, Rainey’s Chevrolet Tahoe is seen, on that very same footage, being pushed out of the subdivision.
Rainey acknowledges he left his key fob within the automobile in a single day, one thing he says is not typical. Wednesday morning, moments after studying his months-old automobile was gone, Rainey described being in disbelief. That feeling, although, would quickly morph into anger.
“It simply infuriated me to consider someone driving round and driving in my automobile,” Rainey stated.
His first step was calling the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s workplace to report his car stolen. Then he phoned OnStar, which discovered his automobile within the Hollygrove neighborhood of New Orleans.
Rainey managed to have the SUV’s engine locked, so the thieves could not drive it wherever else.
It was at that second when he had a option to make: go away it as much as New Orleans Police to get his automobile again, or do it himself.
“I wished my automobile again,” Rainey defined. “I had somebody drive me to New Orleans, and I obtained out of their automobile and walked into the world the place my automobile was, and obtained it again.”
It was adrenaline and principal that Rainey says led him to take the vigilante method. By lunchtime Wednesday, the automobile, trashed and with out a rear-view mirror, was again in his driveway.
“You realize, it in all probability wasn’t the most secure factor for me to do, to go all the way down to this neighborhood in New Orleans and steal my automobile again,” Rainey stated. However that was the choice I made. Once more, I labored too onerous for what I’ve obtained.”
Rainey, who calls the video of individuals wandering round his neighborhood in a single day terrifying, says till now, he hasn’t seen something like this within the six years he is lived in his present residence.
“There’s no person on this parish that’s immune from this,” Rainey stated. “Folks want to grasp and remember that that is taking place in each single neighborhood.”
Whereas he does not suggest taking justice into his personal arms, Rainey says he’s fed up, and that crimes like this one will proceed to occur so long as the perpetrators proceed to get away with them.
He is aware of, had he or any of his neighbors woken up and ventured outdoors as his automobile, amongst others, was rummaged by means of and stolen, the state of affairs may have ended a lot worse.
Now with new units of automobile, home, and workplace keys, Rainey says there are a number of classes he is realized.
“We’re on the level now on this parish, the place you higher be prepared to guard your self, and defend your property, and defend your loved ones,” Rainey stated. “That is the place it’s now. That is the extent of crime right here. It’s essential be prepared, you could be proactive, and you could lock your automobile.”
