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Surveillance video captures car theft with a police officer just feet away

CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. — Channel 2 Action News has obtained surveillance video of a brazen car theft that happened right under the nose of police.

"My reaction was I was stunned, and so was the officer," Karen Lyons told Channel 2's Justin Wilfon.

Lyons said her luxury SUV was stolen from a College Park gas station with a police officer just feet away. She told Wilfon she called police to the station just minutes earlier when she believes the thief and his accomplices first stole her purse out of the car while she was pumping gas.

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“My car wouldn’t start and I thought, 'Wait a minute, where’s my wallet?'” Lyons said.

After calling police and believing the thieves were now gone, she and an officer went inside the gas station to review surveillance video. That’s when the thieves struck again.

"I said 'Can you believe my car is gone?' They took it in the presence of police being there with me, that’s the scary part,” she said.

Police then began looking for the car with no luck.

Now, Lyons fears this brazen group of thieves could be looking for their next victim.

“I feel scared, I feel violated. Even though my life was not threatened, I feel violated,” she said.