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Dad fights off burglar in Mid-City area
Dramatic surveillance footage showing a dad fighting off a burglar in the Mid-City area.
LOS ANGELES - How many times have you heard "a mother will always fight off anybody to keep her children safe?"
You could say the same about this dad after he was caught on camera fighting off a burglar in his own backyard in Mid-City.
Security video shows the scary confrontation as it all went down last Thursday.
It happened during the burglar's second visit to Danny Lobell's backyard as he returned to the scene of the crime hours later to wipe off his fingerprints.
"I look up, and there's the guy. All of a sudden, something… an animal instinct inside of me that's in my DNA as a father, kicked in," said homeowner and father Danny Lobell. "I said, ‘my back door is open and my little girls are in there. If one of us is going back in there, it’s not going to be that guy.'"
Lobell uses the bus in his backyard as a studio for his comedy podcast. That's when the burglar first strikes, stealing cameras and other electronic gear worth around $25,000.
But just two hours later, the burglar is back to wipe clean his fingerprints.
"So I told him, 'I'm going to kill you.' And in that moment, who knows? I mean, I'm a very peaceful guy, But something took me over because my family was threatened."
Lobell is now left trying to pick up the pieces and get his popular podcast back to all of his followers.
He thinks this burglar is from a large RV homeless encampment just down the block from his house.
He's sending this message direct to LA Mayor Karen Bass.
"Mayor. Go out there and fight for us. Clean up these encampments, get these homeless people off the street and make our lives safer. You can do that."
That's his hope anyway.
Lobell has set up a GoFundMe page to help rebuild his mobile recording studio.
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As for the mayor, he says he really hopes that she will do something to clean up that homeless encampment just down the block.
As for the burglary suspect, Lobell wants to see LAPD find this guy.
He's hoping that the security video will help them.
He wants them to make an arrest and as he says, put the guy away for a long time.