HOUSTON – As a Richmond man was on his way to be the hero for a driver who was locked outside his car, he himself became a victim.
It was a routine call to assist a stranded driver, and J.D. Davis, a locksmith, was en route.
"When I got there, I saw two gentlemen trying to open his car in an improper method," Davis said.
Davis said when he arrived, the two men were using crowbars to open the door. He stopped them and unlocked the car the right way.
But the story doesn't end there.
What happened next was caught on surveillance video.
After the door was unlocked, the two men who had been assisting the driver hung around.
"They were commenting, saying 'Hey, that's nice equipment,'" Davis said.
Then Davis reached into the van to grab business cards to hand out. Leaving his door wide open, he created an opportunity for the man in the checkered jacket to commit a crime.
The video shows that man hanging back while Davis walks forward. That man then also reaches into the van, but he grabs Davis's two cellphones and some cash.
"When I looked back, I saw a guy in my car. He was, like, 'Oh, your phone was ringing,' and he handed me my secondary phone," Davis said.
Video shows the suspect give that phone back but pocket the other phone -- a brand new Samsung. The phone he grabbed is not just a normal phone, but the phone from which Davis runs his entire business.
"It was my livelihood because, I mean, all of the software that I use to receive my phone calls comes off there," Davis said.
And now Davis, a trusting locksmith who was just trying to make a living and trying to help a fellow driver, is left without a job just days before Christmas.
Houston police say they are investigating the crime.
Davis describes the two men as white males in their early 20s with tattoos on their knuckles who were driving a black Chevy Avalanche. The two men were not associated with the driver, who was locked out of his vehicle.
If you have any information, you're asked to call Houston police.