CAUGHT ON CAMERA: New Orleans man rigs flashbang to blast car burglar

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A video circulating on social media has grabbed the attention of motorists across New Orleans.

It shows a suspect breaking the window of a pickup truck and proceeding to climb inside. However, seconds later, a big flash of light and smoke sends the unidentified suspect running away fast!

After having his car broken into 6 times in the last 2 months, Brendan Batt decided he had enough and took matters into his own hands. Batt rigged a flashbang.

“This is rigged with a pen and a tripwire so as someone comes and opens the box this pen is going to get pulled, and then, boom! No one is going to get killed or permanently injured from this, but it’s not pleasant and you do not want it to go off anywhere near you,” said Brendan Batt.

Batt built a 12-gauge mini flashbang. He made it with gunpowder and hide the device in his center console. Batt says it is not to injure anyone but to send a message. Batt says car break-ins are a major problem across the city and something needs to be done to stop them.

Already this year, 112 carjackings have been reported here in New Orleans.

Thanks to surveillance footage, Batt says NOPD has received multiple tips on the suspect who broke the window of his Chevy Silverado.

"This is a cheap shot of what people are doing, there is nothing you can do to defend yourself. The guy gleefully skips up to my car, bunny hopping up there like, here we go, who knows what's in this one, and then he finds out what's in there is not what he was looking for," said Batt.

Batt does not encourage other drivers to make flash bangs but hopes more people will install surveillance cameras to help investigators stop car break-ins across the city.