NO ONE IS ILLEGAL ON STOLEN LAND AND/OR IN STOLEN CARS! Thief who swiped Oakland mayor’s $75K car was ‘squatting’ in City Hall for days: source.
The bandit who stole the mayor of Oakland’s $75,000 SUV had been “squatting” inside City Hall before swiping the keys from her office, the California Post can reveal.
Barbara Lee’s black Ford Expedition was reported missing on Tuesday but was recovered just “hours later” in nearby Vallejo, California, thanks to a tracker attached to it.
A source told the Post the thief had been living inside the complex since Friday and managed to stay undetected despite the highly paid ABC Security Services being on site.
The suspect was holed out on the 11th floor of the deserted offices over the Presidents Day weekend, according to the insider.
They are understood to have “jimmied” the door to Lee’s office on Monday and made off with the city-owned car using an unsecured parking lot entrance.
Police said the alleged thief had been identified through security footage and an arrest was made on Thursday.
Police? Lee runs hot and cold on her feelings for them: Barbara Lee Praised Defunding Police; Now Her SUV Has Been Swiped From City Hall.
The timeline here matters.
In 2020, during the height of the defund movement, Lee said she was “really proud” of the Minneapolis City Council’s pledge to defund the local police.
Really proud.
There was no distancing language. No caveats. No hesitation about the direction the movement was pushing. At the time, “defund” was not a misunderstood slogan. It was a demand to redirect resources away from police departments and shrink their footprint.
Lee embraced that energy.
She later declared:
“We have to restructure our funding priorities in terms of how we make our communities safe.”
That was not a throwaway line. In the political climate of 2020, “restructure” meant fewer officers, less traditional enforcement, and more faith in alternative approaches. It meant the old model was flawed and needed to be scaled back.
And she did not stop there.
“We can’t wait. It’s time to overhaul our policing system.”
Overhaul contemplates far more than a trim around the edges — it is a teardown. It assumes what exists is fundamentally broken and must be rebuilt from the ground up.
Oakland has been living inside that rebuild.
The city recorded 9,914 motor vehicle thefts in 2024. Its overall crime rate has run several times the national average. The police department has been operating roughly 280 officers short. Residents have not needed policy papers to explain the consequences. They have been double-checking their locks and hoping their cars are still where they left them.
Then crime stopped being a statistic and became a symbol.
It did not stay in the neighborhoods. It did not politely avoid elected officials. It allegedly walked into City Hall, went into the mayor’s office, took the key to a city vehicle, and drove off.
Car thefts for thee, but not for me. Exit quote: “It is remarkable how quickly the traditional law enforcement model becomes essential when crime crosses the threshold of City Hall.”
