According to a recent incident report from SFPD’s Richmond Station newsletter (to subscribe, email sfpd.richmond.station@sfgov.org), A Muni driver who witnessed the abduction of his jacket right from under his nose on June 28th got the chance to right this wrong when he noticed the suspected thief riding his very bus, the 38 Geary outbound, nearly two weeks later on July 9th. A police officer at 6th and Geary, flagged down by the driver, detained the suspect upon his exiting.
This is only the latest in a series of Muni driver jacket (and sweater) thefts to strike the city. As the SF Weekly reported, this has been a problem in the making for at least a year.
A common tactic is apparently to distract the driver with mischievous vandalism – which includes compromising those nifty cables that tell drivers when you want to get off – while a fellow small time criminal makes off with the top half of the driver’s uniform. Of course, given the lack of jacket fetishism among small time criminals, it’s no surprise to learn that this isn’t the only item being targeted – glasses, iPods and other items common for drivers to possess have been lifted as well. But clothing disappearance seems to be a constant.
One incident not only involved the theft of a jacket, but the hearing aids contained within, valued at $2500. The driver was later reunited with his jacket, though unfortunately not the far more critical hearing devices.
