CHANGING BUSES
Thursday, Jan. 31, 1:20 p.m.
Fillmore at Grove
A Muni bus driver flagged down patrol officers to tell them that a passenger had just been robbed. An elderly woman was pushed into her seat by a man in his late 40s, who told her to sit down, eventually using his body to force her to stay in the seat. He then went through the woman’s purse and removed her wallet. She was able to get free of the man and tell the bus driver, who called the police. But while that was happening, the suspect fled the bus and got aboard another bus.
Armed with a description of the suspect, the officers tracked down the second bus and found the man matching the description. When the man stood up, a wallet fell from his lap and was retrieved by the officers. The elderly victim identified the wallet and the suspect, who was booked at Northern Station.
INTERNET PAWN
Saturday, Feb. 2, 12:48 p.m.
1600 block of Van Ness Ave.
Employees of a pawn shop told police officers they thought two people trying to pawn some items in their store were trying to unload stolen goods. The two subjects were unable to tell the employees the make or the approximate value of some guitars they were trying to pawn, though one of them knew the value he’d take: $1,000, a figure the store employees thought was a very low bid for these items.
The subjects said they’d gotten the guitars from a storage unit, but a store employee had received an e-mail from an individual noting that he had had two guitars stolen from his vehicle earlier in the week and he included the guitars’ make, model, color, value, and serial numbers. When the store employee checked the information that had been e-mailed to the store against the guitars brought in by the subjects, the serial numbers and other data matched.
Officers arrived, detained the subjects, and contacted the victim, who was able to regain his stolen property after it had been photographed as evidence.
TAG-TEAM CRIMINALS
Sunday, Feb. 3, 5:31 p.m.
1100 block of Polk St.
Two women became the focus of a large crowd outside a drinking establishment as they became involved in a rolling-around-on-the-ground fight. When officers arrived, one woman told them she had been attacked randomly by the other female when she was leaving the bar. Before the altercation, the victim had put her purse in the backseat of a car. During the fight, a male subject grabbed the purse and fled. Officers believe the male was working in league with the woman who started the fight. They booked her at County Jail, but the purse was not recovered.
“YEAH, MAYBE I FOUND IT IN A BAG”
Friday, Feb. 8, 4:24 a.m.
Oak at Gough
A caller reported gunshots being fired. The caller said he saw a subject firing a black pistol into the air, emptying the revolver then heading back into his apartment. Police arrived and spoke to the subject, who said he found the gun in an alley several weeks earlier.
Officers ran a computer check on the firearm, tracing it to an owner in Oakland. Oakland officers were unable to locate the owner, so Northern Station officers asked the subject if he knew where the gun came from and if it might have been stolen. He responded “Yeah, maybe I found it in a bag on the street.” He was booked at Northern Station.
IT’S THE JACKET’S FAULT
Saturday, Feb. 9, 10:35 p.m.
Fillmore at Pixley
Officers were flagged down by a local bar manager, who told them a man in the bar was trying to steal items from women’s purses. The manager had been alerted by a woman who recovered her phone after the attempted thief had accidentally dropped it. The man, spotted by the officers standing at the bar with his jacket over his right arm (a common way of concealing the hand and making it easier to steal items), had been asked to leave the bar the previous night after doing the same thing, according to another bar employee.
When officers informed the man why they were arresting him, he said “My jacket just got caught on her purse.” But he had no more to say when informed of his Miranda rights. He was booked at Northern Station.
IT’S THE SKATEBOARD’S FAULT
Thursday, Feb. 14, 10:29 a.m.
Van Ness Ave.
Officers and SFFD paramedics arrived in response to a call about an assault with a man down and bleeding uncontrollably from the head. A witness said a verbal argument between the victim and subject escalated to physical assault, with the two pushing and shoving one another. The subject then turned and struck the victim in the head with his skateboard. The victim fell, hitting his head again on the building wall and then the ground.
The victim told officers that he had had past altercations with the subject, too, and that the subject had stolen from him. Officers found someone matching his description, and he was positively identified by the victim and witnesses. The assailant was booked at Northern Station and the victim was treated at S.F. General.
REPOSESSION IS 9/10THS OF THE LAW
Friday, Feb. 15, 10:46 p.m.
Bay at Larkin
Plain clothes officers in an unmarked car observed four male occupants inside a parked vehicle. The officers ran a computer check, which revealed that the vehicle had been reported stolen. The car pulled away and the officers followed from a distance, updating the location and direction of travel until uniformed officers arrived to pull over the car without incident.
The three passengers were removed, identified, and released. The driver was arrested and later booked on charges of possession of stolen property and other charges. The driver told officers, “Man, my brother just gave me this car earlier today.”
