Editing Blog/2025-04-15/Catching A Laptop Thief

Today, an unusual thing happened: we caught a laptop thief.

[[File:{{#setmainimage:The Laptop Thief And His Pursuers.png}}|thumb|The thief (and the victim) followed the red line, the other bystander (who got to him first) is the blue line, and I'm the green line]]

== Prelude ==

My friend and coworker Mario was feeling rather peckish after having skipped lunch this afternoon, so he suggested we pop over to the coffee shop for a snack. Outset Coffee on New Montgomery and Mission opened only in the last year, and while I'm not much of a fan of their coffee (preferring the iced mochas at Equator Coffee in the LinkedIn building), I do like the fact that they have Third Culture's Mochi Doughnuts. So we went there, I got my mango passionfruit mochi doughnut and sat down to munch away.

== The Crime And Chase ==

I got about one bite in when I looked up to see this chap running out the door with a backpack<ref name=naivete/>. A couple of seconds after, he was followed by a man in his 40s chasing after yelling something like "Stop! Wait! That's mine! Hey!" and other such things. It took me a couple of seconds to realize what was going on but it felt like the right thing to chase. So the thief ran across Mission to the South side of Mission, with the victim in pursuit. The light turned green across Mission but another bystander gave chase, running from across New Montgomery. I followed the thief on the North side of Mission and when there was a short lull in traffic, I ran across the street a couple of seconds after the other bystander reached him and grabbed his arm. Together we held him against the back of a car that was parked there and wrenched the backpack away from him.

== The Bargaining ==

Right after that, the victim showed up and took possession of his belongings. A comical conversation then ensued where the thief (who had already tried to convince us that it was his backpack) attempted to convince the victim that he knew precisely what was in the bag: a laptop. When this didn't work, he tried to convince the victim that he only needed $60 to eat. Unfortunately, this fell on deaf ears too. After a few more such entreaties, he asked if he could go. As it so happened, none of us were eager for that to happen so he stood there guarded by the three of us.

== The Police ==

By this time, I'd hopped on the phone and called 911 and informed them that we had apprehended the laptop thief. They asked me if both the victim and the suspect were there, and whether the victim wanted to press charges. I assume this meant they wanted to know if we would cooperate with a prosecution. Personally, I would gladly have done so on my own but it's hard without the victim cooperating. And this time, we were fortunate enough that everyone was willing to play. So they sent out a car.

Now one thing the police report from [[Motorcycle Accident|my motorcycle accident]] is that they can get there quite fast when they've got the sirens flying. The ambulance got to me in a few minutes that day (which is probably why I'm in reasonably good shape despite the incident). Well, this incident wasn't as serious as that, so we waited some half an hour. During this time, police dispatch did call the victim back on his cell phone since his call was interrupted.

Fortunately for us, the new Mayor Daniel Lurie has [https://www.sf.gov/mayor-lurie-launches-sfpd-hospitality-task-force-major-new-effort-to-strengthen-public-safety-drive-economic-comeback this SFPD hospitality task force] that goes around places like Yerba Buena Gardens and sees if everything is fine. I spotted them park there and Mario went over to tell them about the whole thing. They came back, and processed the arrest and took our witness statements.

== The Statements ==

The way they did it was interesting only because I haven't had one of these live before like this: they separate the perpetrator, the victim, and each of the bystanders and take independent statements. Before they did, the policeman asked if I'd cooperate and then noted down my ID, address, and phone number and then listened to my statement, wrote it down, and then repeated it to me to confirm.

There were 4 or more policemen and one policewoman. I didn't get the count precisely right because a couple of cruisers showed up halfway through (one of which they placed the arrested perpetrator in). The police officers were quite reasonable. They told us about some accident between a school bus and something else that had blocked traffic in the area making it hard for someone to respond but they were glad they were close by. Apparently, usually when someone tries to tell them about an incident it's too far away and too long ago for them to do anything. In this case, they were fortunately a block away!

== The Conclusion ==

In the end, it all worked out. But if the guy had been armed or had thrown away the bag, I think I wouldn't have chased him. If he struggled after we caught him, I might have held him so long as the other guy who chased him down was there too. In a "Batman Creates The Joker" sense, perhaps the only criminals left in time will be the dangerous ones.

To be honest, the poor chap seemed rather ''paavum'' but you can't go around stealing people's things like this. I know that in India it happened all the time to me as a child and I'd be so upset. Julie's lost her laptop and iPad to car window smashers as well. And some of my friends have been robbed on BART. So I'm glad that's not what happened this time.

For the sake of memory, I'll describe the chap. He was a few inches shorter than me, probably 5'8" or so and wearing a white hoodie with the hood up on top of which he had a blue sweatshirt. I forget what colour his pants were but his shoes were white. He was Hispanic, as far as Census races go. Mario remarked that he seemed to have a speech impediment. I admit to feeling bad for the guy. To be honest, I really wish he hadn't stolen anything, but given that he did I don't think a different outcome would have been better.

== Epilogue ==

An unusually coincidental thing about this whole thing is we apprehended the thief at 667 Mission St. This was the address of the first place in San Francisco that I worked at. It is the place where I went up the elevator and received the keys and security code from the woman who I would marry ten years later. In 2013, I went there for the first time, and here I was a month short of 12 years later!
[[File:Roshan on a Lyft bike standing by Yerba Buena Public Square.webp|thumb|A charmingly light-hearted experience to end the day]]

Later that day, when I'd finished at work I was biking back home when I stopped on the walkway by Yerba Buena Plaza to wait for an old lady to finish using the ramp so that I could wheel the Lyft bike down<ref name=lyftramp/>. When she reached the top of the ramp, she saw me standing there and exclaimed delightedly. It was a lovely pink sunset that evening, and I was standing by the flowers planted there against the brightly painted walls of the square. She found this whole thing wonderful and said "Oh, it's such a pity. You can't see all of this, of course. The flowers and your brightly coloured jacket. Do you have a phone? Can I take a photo of you to show you? I promise I won't run away. You're the first person who I've asked for a phone".

There is no way she could have outrun me, but nonetheless I'm a fairly naïve person<ref name=naivete/> and so I was happy to give her the phone with which she took the photograph. She asked me not to pose or anything and to just be natural but I'm damned if I could have done that on demand and so hopped onto the bike.

A pleasant cap to the eventful day!

== Notes ==

<references>
<ref name=naivete>In my naive innocence, I assumed this guy was in the hurry to catch BART. I suppose I am the classic clueless liberal in this respect because the guy had a hoodie all the way up on a warm day so I should have thought otherwise.</ref>
<ref name=lyftramp>The Lyft e-bikes are quite heavy so it's much more pleasant to wheel them down than to bounce them down the stairs.</ref>
</references>