Homeless woman steals donations from Democrat candidate for Oakland city council, police never show up: report

Charlene Wang, who is running for Oakland, CA city council to counter the city’s growing homeless problem and exploding crime, was a victim of that lawlessness herself on Sunday, when a homeless woman reportedly stole $1,000 in donations from her.

Wang said she called 911 to report the crime but the police never showed up. Video shows Wang and other campaign volunteers trying to negotiate with the woman as she refuses to give up an orange bag filled with money, Fox News reported.

The candidate said that she was having a campaign kickoff at Clinton Square Park Sunday afternoon when the homeless woman approached the event and helped herself to the bag. The woman refused to let go and eventually fled with the money.

When Wang asked the homeless woman, "Can we just get the orange bag please?" she replied, “When I'm done, y'all want me to take the sh*t out so y'all can snatch it and run.”

The altercation apparently upset the homeless woman, who began to shout and threaten a volunteer who was also trying to separate the woman from the bag. A second volunteer offered to give the woman $100 if she would relinquish the bag with the money. 

Wang and her team unsuccessfully tried to contact the homeless services and then the Oakland police, who took down the information and said there were 250 other incidents to investigate before they could get to Wang’s crime. The police reportedly  never responded to the incident.

"The complete lack of response we saw from both mental health and police services was unacceptable," Wang told Fox News Digital. "I'm committed to hiring more police and improving mental health services to bring down response times and get people the help they need."

The police did not even drop over to file a report. "I very much tried to have a de-escalatory conversation with her to convince her to hand over the bag," Wang told ABC7. "Offer her a warm meal at the grocery store, even give her money in exchange for the bag, but that did not work out."

Oakland has become a crime-ridden city. Recently a mother was killed on the street when she tried to stop a drug dealer from selling to her kids. Wang is a Democrat who says she wants to fight crime and homelessness in the city. She has worked for the Biden-Harris administration in the Department of Transportation (DOT).

She says she can fight crime by using technology and hiring more police officers. Wang states on her website that Oakland's police force is "unusually small with far below the national average of police per capita. I plan to address the skyrocketing levels of crime and gun violence by investing in technology alongside community policing."