BRIGHTON, N.Y. — A brazen attempted vehicle break-in — caught on video — is just one example of an increase in car break-ins that Brighton Police are warning people about.

A Brighton woman confronted the masked man she says was breaking into her car the day she was moving into an apartment complex. She kept her car locked — but Brighton Police say many car owners are forgetting to lock their doors.

The woman’s car door was locked, but that didn’t stop thieves from attempting to break in.

A video shows a packed silver Hyundai Elantra, and a driver in a white Elantra on the right parked next to it. You also see two neighbors confronting the would-be thieves.

“I was moving in, my car was full of my stuff; I took a load up to my apartment,” said the Brighton woman, whose name and apartment complex News10NBC is not naming for her safety. “I hear this banging noise — 4 o’clock on a Saturday afternoon — I look out the window and there’s a car parked next to mine, two guys, a guy out there wearing a mask trying to bash in the handle of my car.”

She started screaming. “A few obscenities out the window at him from my stairwell and I tell him to get away from my car and I come running down the stairs and rather foolishly I go right at him,” she said. She walked right up to them and told them to back off.

“‘Get away from my car — you know what are you doing’ — rather peppered — to the point where they like backing up and saying ‘Whoa, is this your car?’ I’m like, ‘Well, it ain’t yours’ and you know, stop them — they had already smashed the door handle of my car, they were trying to steal my car. They backed off and their response was ‘Oh, just turn it in to your insurance company.’ I have a thousand dollar deductible.”

She said Brighton Police arrived in less than 5 minutes, but the would-be thieves already had taken off.

Her complex is one where Brighton Police say they are seeing an increase of cars being broken into that are unlocked. In the woman’s case, the car was locked, but it wasn’t stopping the thieves.

“These suspects show up to these parking lots and just start walking around checking for cars. Maybe they are checking for Kias and Hyundais and trying them, but they are also checking other vehicles,” Brighton Sgt. Julio Montes said.

Montes has an important reminder for the community.

“Lock your vehicle — make a routine of it every night. Securing your vehicles and taking anything that is valuable — take it out of the car,” the sergeant said.

News10NBC asked the woman who stood up to the thieves how she feels going through this on the day she moved into the complex.

“Like, what type of place did I move into — did I just make a really bad decision?” she said.

She said overall she thinks the neighborhood is a nice place to live, but finds the mindset of these car thieves “thinking ‘just contact insurance’ is just “sad.”