Parents of man robbed at gunpoint in Oakland feel like crime has become the new 'normal'

The parents of a 21-year-old man who was robbed at gunpoint while celebrating his birthday in California last weekend lamented what has become of Oakland and the Bay Area due to crime.

"My perception has completely changed," El Paso attorney Maxey Scherr told Fox News Digital about the state she grew up loving after her son and his friends experienced the shocking robbery in broad daylight. 

"I know California to be very different from what was shown to me this week. And so, I have no idea that it's threatening, and it is a danger to fill up your gas tank in Oakland. Had no idea," she added.

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The son’s father, Victor Obevoen, said he was shocked at how "nonchalant" authorities and the community have been about crimes happening like this in the area, adding that it "definitely changes my perception" of Oakland. 

Scherr and Obevoen joined their son on a tour of California’s wine country last weekend to celebrate his 21st birthday. They described having a pleasant and relaxing trip until their son and his friends – who were making their way back home separate from them – were robbed at gunpoint while filling up their rental car at a gas station outside of Oakland International Airport on Monday.

Footage of the incident – which the mother claimed she was given by a concerned local following the ordeal – shows a dark gray sedan pulling up to the gas pump behind the one her son was using.

Several men – who the attorney noted wore ski masks – approached the son’s car and began transferring its contents into their vehicle. As her son got out of the rental Ford Explorer to assess the commotion, a man with a gun approached him and allegedly struck him in the head before taking his phone and wallet from out of his pockets.

Another robber took a wallet from one of his friends and took all their luggage. 

The parents told Fox that their son claimed the gas station attendant seemed "indifferent" to their plight immediately after the incident and told them to leave the area should the robbers come back and kill them. 

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The young men also had a hard time reaching police, and noted how, upon returning their rental car, a clerk claimed robberies happen to one of their vehicles at least once a day.

This added to the parents’ impression that this kind of crime wave is a new "normal" for Oakland and the surrounding Bay Area.

"We've visited California so many times over the years since he was a child and nothing like this has ever happened – well, is expected to happen," Obevoen said.

"I think we all kind of get angry that nothing seems so – or everyone just accepts this as the norm over there," he said, adding, "I'm sure there are people who are not okay with that, that this is what Oakland's known for almost. That's the perception that's being sent anyway, that ‘Oh, this is normal.’"

He noted the rental car company, the gas station employee, and even the police conveyed the feeling that this was a "normal" occurrence. 

Scherr, who has offered a $10,000 reward for anyone who has information about the robbery, added she is worried about the community and local authorities being complacent about these violent crimes. 

She criticized the lack of security around the gas station premises, which made her suspicious about whether the attendant was in on the crime. 

"At least we need to explore what sort of knowledge this gas station employee and the workers there have and why they aren't doing anything," she said. "There is no speed bump in there. There are no signs. There is no presence of security. There's no police presence. Why nothing?"

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The concerned mother continued, "If there are months and months and months and months of reports of sometimes daily or multi-daily robberies, of people getting held up at gunpoint and their things being taken, and more importantly, their lives being threatened, why is nothing being done?"

Scherr also said "We don't want this complacency to become the new norm. This downward spiral has to stop. It has to stop. If we don't stop it – if people don't start standing up and saying ‘We don't want this to be our community’ ­– then what's going to happen?"

The father felt like law enforcement and city leaders are not taking crime seriously. 

"I mean, the reaction we've gotten so far, it, you know, it seems like no one is really doing much to stop this. It seems everyone just accepts this as normal daily life in that community or in Oakland, or in the Bay Area. That's the perception I'm getting, from the politicians, from the police," Obevoen said. "I would think, when a group of young men are held at gunpoint and robbed of everything, including the things they need just to get back home, like their driver's license and car keys and things like that, you would think a community would be more, I guess, responsive."

Scherr emailed Oakland mayor, California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and more than a dozen other state lawmakers to raise her concern about the new normal of crime but she has yet to receive a response from anyone. 

The email, which the attorney also shared with Fox News Digital, stated, "Shockingly, the response by the gas station, rental car company, police and politicians contacted on the day of the attack was indifference. Since the day of the attack, despite dozens and dozens of attempts to reach each of you listed on this email (and others) we have received no response at all. We have made national news. Yet not a SINGLE response has been received."

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