Camera Crew Robbed at Gunpoint While Filming Famous 'We Love Houston' Sign to Promote City — but the Irony Gets Much Sweeter

It was nowhere near how they expected their filming session to end.

A Houston video crew was hired to make a promotional clip highlighting the good things about the city — and on Wednesday's afternoon agenda was a time-lapse shot of the famous "We Love Houston" artwork sign along Interstate 10.

Image source: KPRC-TV

"We didn't think we were in danger at that location, especially in the middle of the day along a crowded freeway," Zach Jankovic of Cut to Create told KPRC-TV.

But the crew noticed a man walking toward them — odd since they were next to the Interstate — but brushed it off as no big deal.

Until he pointed a gun at them.

"They put their hands up, got out of there," Jankovic said of the crew, only too happy to give up their expensive cameras in exchange for their lives.

After they called 911, they got in a car and followed the man.

"We see this guy running along I-10, fumbling holding two cameras, two tripods, trying to get down the street fast," Jankovic told KPRC. "And we see him put the camera down, start bashing it so he can get it off the tripod."

While the alleged robber took off in a 2011 or 2012 maroon Nissan Altima, he likely won't be happy he left behind a GoPro camera: The GoPro was running the entire time of the robbery — and it caught a close-up image of the alleged culprit's face.

Image source: KPRC-TV

"Why he dropped off the GoPro, I don't know," Jankovic told the station, "but I'm glad he did, because at least now we have a photo of him."

Oh, and the "gun" he was brandishing? It was a pellet gun, police told KPRC, adding that they're reviewing the crew's video of the robbery in the hopes of nabbing the crook.

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