An Inside Edition film crew who planted valuable items inside a car to catch thieves on camera had their equipment stolen from their own vehicle while they were filming.

The crew were attempting to lure 'smash and grab' thieves in the San Francisco Bay area of California, where a spate of robberies have taken place in recent months.

However whilst they were confronting the man they caught stealing these items, their unattended crew car was broken into and thousands of dollars worth of equipment stolen.

The Inside Edition film crew were reporting on high levels of 'smash and grab' car thefts and were in the process of confronting a suspect when their equipment was stolen

A man broke into the car window and reached inside to take the planted items. The entire robbery took less than half a minute

The crew had filmed themselves hiding tracking devices in a $250 speaker and a handbag, which they left in full view inside a car parked in well-known theft hotspots.

Reporter Lisa Guerrero then explains that 'for [their] last trick,' the Inside Edition employees had also rigged the car with surveillance cameras to identify the perpetrators in the likely event the items were stolen.

Unsurprisingly, the car was broken into by two 'smash and grab' thieves; a man who broke the back window and grabbed the handbag and speaker, and a female accomplice.

The crew apprehended this man (centre) a train station, where Guerrero told him 'You've got my speaker right there, you just broke into our car, [we've] got it on camera'

A man takes a handbag from the car by an Inside Edition crew in the San Francisco Bay Area, unaware that it contains a GPS tracker

A man whose own surveillance cameras also caught the incident said 'it all lasted maybe 20 seconds.'

The group managed to trace the duo to a train station through the GPS device inside the speaker.

In the footage Guerrero says: 'You've got my speaker right there, you just broke into our car. [We've] got it on camera.'

The man tries to stop the crew filming and pushes the camera away while refusing to hand over the speaker.

Reporter Lisa Guerrero explains that 'for [their] last trick,' the crew had also fitted the car with surveillance cameras to identify the perpetrators in the robbery

At one point, he says he wants to call his mother.

Inside Edition said the man eventually left the speaker, and they later found the handbag in a garbage can.

Their expensive film equipment, however, has not been recovered.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, more than 31,000 people reported 'smash and grab' robberies in the city in 2017 alone.