Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California hit a setback while campaigning for the Senate on Thursday when thieves stole his suit, leaving him to ask for donations in street clothes at a ritzy fundraiser in San Francisco, according to a report.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported the congressman was in the Bay area for a cash grab as he attempts to fill the seat formerly held by Dianne Feinstein, who died in office last September.

Before the private fundraiser, Schiff’s car was burglarized in a city parking garage.

Instead of attending the formal attire affair in his usual suit and tie, Schiff instead wore a long-sleeve shirt and a hiking vest.

The Democratic congressman and U.S. Senate candidate got a rude introduction to San Francisco’s vexing reputation for car burglaries Thursday when thieves swiped his bags from his car while it sat in a downtown parking garage. https://t.co/UCzY5ajWsG

— San Francisco Chronicle (@sfchronicle) April 26, 2024

Schiff told the Chronicle he was not in the car when it was broken into and admitted, “Yes, they took my bags.”

He thanked his hosts for having him and the crime was essentially dismissed, almost as if it was just a part of doing business in the area.

As Kevin Fagan with the newspaper reported, “The congressman [said] he’d been warned to not leave anything in the car, but apparently he was in a hurry and didn’t want to be late …”

Dinner attendees and hosts joked about the burglary, according to the report.

Anyone who follows California’s issues with rampant theft should not be surprised by what happened to Schiff.

Crime, especially theft, is just a way of life now for a city and state that were, during the last century, among the crown jewels of the republic.

Democrats now hold all the power in their one-party state and it hasn’t done California’s voters any favors. But with the state safely in Democratic hands, state officials love to talk about problems in the rest of the country.

As a member of the Golden State’s congressional delegation, one function of Schiff’s job is to essentially stump for the spread of the failed policies that led to Thursday’s burglary.

Californians like to export their bad ideas to other states.

Those ideas become policies that embolden people to not think twice about breaking into a car and stealing someone’s luggage in a world full of cameras.

Not to place blame on a victim of a crime here, but Schiff has spent recent years more concerned about identity politics than with public safety.

“Building safe and secure communities is, at its core, about building trust,” Schiff says of the issue of crime on his website. “It’s about fixing what’s broken and rooting out the systemic prejudices that tilt the scales of justice against Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous people.”

He concludes, “It’s going to take all of us to make the dream of a fair, just, and safe society a reality.”

A more appropriate stance would be to state that all criminals should be prosecuted equally for violating laws and to declare that justice is blind.

In urban California, public officials and those who represent them in Washington are not concerned with public safety or enforcing laws, and criminals are aware of that.

That was probably why someone felt bold enough to break into Schiff’s car on Thursday, and also why he did not appear to be outwardly bothered by it.

But from a political standpoint, Schiff couldn’t have complained if he wanted to.

He owns the state’s decline as much as anyone.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.