Yesterday, while on the Westfield Mall area stretch of their Ice Cream Sunday Ride, members of the SF Bike Coalition “noticed this asshat chopping a cable lock.”
The SFBC’s Operations Director, Frank Chan started taking the photos you see above, as another SFBC employee, Program Manager Marc Caswell gave chase while calling 911.
We gave Caswell a call, to get the scoop. He told us that there were about 150 people riding on the Ice Cream Ride, and he was bringing up the rear. They were just passing the Westfield Mall (this is on Market just past 5th) when Caswell witnessed the man in the slideset with black, about 2 foot long bolt cutters attacking the cable locks on some bikes parked in front of the mall.
Caswell dropped his bike and took off toward the guy, who spit his cigarette at him and started yelling profanities as he fled the scene. Caswell followed, on the phone with 911, until they reached 5th and Bryant, at which point the alleged, attempted bike thief darted across on red.
The 911 operator told Marc not to endanger himself by jaywalking in pursuit. So, he went back to the site of the cable cutting, where two SFPD officers were there with the two bikes. The officers said they’d wait for the bikes’ owners to return, since they were now unlocked and even more vulnerable to theft.
“Cable locks are basically like using a shoelace, you gotta use an u-lock” Caswell told the Appeal. “You can cut a cable lock in a single stroke, and be gone in under a minute.”
