Robbers stole CBS13 news camera and hit a crew member while driving off, UCD police say

A TV news camera set up at UC Davis early Thursday was stolen away from its crew, and a victim was hit by the robbers’ vehicle as they fled, according to a police report.

CBS13 reporter Dina Kupfer confirmed in an email to The Bee that she and a photographer were victims of a robbery near the Memorial Union on the UC Davis main campus.

The incident happened about 5:10 a.m., according to a memo by the UC Davis Police Department. Kupfer was on campus to film a segment about Domestic Violence Awareness Month to air on Channel 31 (KMAX, which shares a studio and reporters with CBS13) for its “Good Day Sacramento” program, she said in the email.

A man then approached the crew’s camera and tripod, snatching them both, the memo said.

The cameraman, Scott Zentner, shared his firsthand account of the robbery.

Zentner said he and Kupfer arrived about 4:45 a.m. and started setting up. Just before the incident, Zentner said he had walked back to the truck to fix a technical problem.

The camera was set up about 10 feet away, and Zentner said it “didn’t seem like the situation warranted putting the camera back in the truck between live shots,” saying this isn’t always feasible while filming.

“I was standing in the back of the truck working on it, and Dina was in the passenger seat. She started yelling my name,” Zentner said. “I thought she was being attacked.”

Both exited the vehicle as the suspect approached, Zentner said.

“I got between him and her,” Zentner said.

It took Zentner a moment to realize the man was heading for the camera and not Kupfer, he said.

Zentner said the thief struggled with the camera setup, which included a tripod, a light, a wireless microphone and an attached backpack. The camera alone is about 20 pounds, Zentner said.

The whole setup was worth about $16,000, Zentner estimated.

“It looked much more difficult to grab it and run away with it than I’m sure he thought it was going to be,” Zentner said.

Zentner then tried to stop the thief, confronting him near a planter box.

“I remember thinking, ‘I bet if I can slow that guy down, he’ll probably drop it,’ ” Zentner said.

But that’s not what happened.

“I grabbed the tripod and, foolishly and defiantly, I said ‘Nope!’ and tried to grab that away from him,” Zentner said. “That didn’t work out for me. He swung it around, and it swung me around. I lost my balance and I fell.”

The suspect’s vehicle, described as a black compact SUV driven by another person, fled the scene. As Zentner got back on his feet, the SUV struck him at a relatively low speed in the upper right side of his body, he said. He was not seriously hurt, he said, suffering the most significant injury from having the tripod yanked and twisted while in his hand.

Two men — one described as a black male age 20 to 30, 6-foot-2, 230 pounds, in a black hoodie and blue surgical gloves; and no description available for the driver — are sought by law enforcement.

The black SUV was seen fleeing in the direction of Russell Boulevard, according to the police report.

Zentner said he was not as fearful for his safety at the time as he should have been, and that he didn’t even consider the possibility the suspects could be armed. No firearms or weapons were mentioned in the police report.

Zentner said CBS13 in the past has considered hiring security guards to accompany news crews, a practice he said is put in place sometimes in higher-danger scenarios in news markets like the Bay Area. The Sacramento station, which is a CBS owned-and-operated station, decided not to.

“CBS doesn’t really do anything, and I don’t expect them to,” the cameraman said. “We never would have expected that to happen in UC Davis. It’s a relatively well-lit, well-traveled area. Our guard was not up. Not to impugn the reputation of any part of town, but it’s not like we were in South Sac or Stockton or anywhere you might expect something to go wrong.”

Zentner said Kupfer was more emotionally distressed than he was, likely because she feared for her safety before the suspect headed for the camera, and then also witnessed the confrontation between the thief and her co-worker.

“She looked directly in the guys’ eyes,” Zentner said. “She was pretty upset. Honestly, I didn’t really even think about it. Had I thought about, I would have just let him walk away, because I’m not paying for the camera.”

The investigation is ongoing, police said.

“I am very shaken up emotionally, but I was not injured,” wrote Kupfer, who joined CBS13 in December after five years with ABC10.

Zentner said Friday is his regularly scheduled day off and he didn’t experience enough injury or emotional trauma to miss any work. He said he did file a workers compensation claim with CBS13.

Anyone with information about the incident is urged to call UC Davis Police Department at 530-754-2677.

This story was originally published October 4, 2018 at 12:48 PM.