Crime

"Mob of Folks" Go After Bobby the Bike Thief

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

As we've talked about in the past, Pop's Bar is straight-up the worst place to leave your bike due to their neighboring bike thief.  Well, GoatLeg over at SF Fixed “riled up a fucking mob” and got his stolen parts back:

Hello, all. Tonight me front wheel was stolen while locked up outside of the Dovre club at 26th/Valencia. I was inside while some friends were outside smoking while some random local asked whose bike it was this guy stole the front wheel from. They knew it was my bike, and the local told them it was a latino guy in a red pickup truck with a black topper over the bed. Immediately we knew it was this guy Bobby who lives around the corner from Pop's. All my friends came in and told me what happened, I ran out with all my shit expecting to see him outside. Of course he wasn't there, so I ran back in, got all my homies together and riled up a fucking mob of folks 100% poised to get my wheel back. So, we all ran down to the corner of 24th/York, a few of them went in to Pop's to get some beer and not be directly involved in what was about to go down.

So from there, four or five of my friends surrounded Bobby's truck (the same red pickup with the black topper) while I ran up to the house we knew he lived at. I wasn't 100% sure which of the two doors was his, so I rang each bell. His neighbor opened here door almost immediately. I asked, “Does Bobby live here?” and she said “No” and poinetd to the other door on the left, at which point I looked back at my friends who were opening up the tailgate to Bobby's truck and grabbed my wheel out. I turned to his neighbor and said, “Cool, well your neighbor is a bike thief and we're just taking my wheel back”. As soon as I turned away I started off down the stairs and one of the neighbors yelled, “What the fuck are you doing to that truck??!” I took off running as fast as I possibly could, while my friend had my wheel in his had and everyone scattered.

Of course, stealing the wheel back isn't enough.  GoatLeg is taken his photo (above) and is “going to make it known that this guy is a known bike thief, and that I know where he lives and that he needs to stop doing this shit, or he will pay. I fullheartedly think this a step in the right direction to get this shit stopped.”  Going to poster the neighborhood?  He'll pay?  It looks like Bobby is at the end of his rope and people are done waiting to SFPD to do something.

I can't imagine this will end well.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

'Missing Alcatraz Inmates' Were Cause of Monday Gunfire in Russian Hill.

— By Zach Perkins |

Production for Alcatraz (the upcoming San Francisco-set JJ Abrams thriller) began on January 19th, but don't expect to see many production crews around the City. As previously discussed, a handful of key shots for the first season will likely be filmed here (and on the Rock), but the overwhelming majority of the series will be shot in Vancouver.  

Monday was one of those exceptions.  As SFist reported, Alcatraz filming resulted in street closures and neighborhood warnings of 'simulated gunfire'.  We at Uptown Almanac sent Jenny Wilson down to Filbert Street between Hyde and Leavenworth, to continue our tradition of bringing you the best in shitty iPhone journalism and paparazzi star-fucking.  

You never know, if you hang around Humphrey Slocombe enough, there's still a chance you might have a 'ZOMG it's Hurley from Lost!' moment in the next few weeks.  

Alcatraz premieres on FOX this Fall, and is centered around a team of FBI Agents tasked with hunting down a group of missing inmates and guards who reappear in the present. 

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Bike Party Foul

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

The second SF BIke Party made its way to the Mission last Friday and ran into a little problem at Garfield Park:

Several riders got their bicycles stolen at Garfield Park. If you walk away from your bike, be sure to lock it up! We don’t want anyone else to lose a bicycle.

This is like the time that your brother didn't think he needed to put a lock on his high school gym locker and had is innocence shattered as he discovered he didn't have any pants to wear to his last three periods.  I'm not saying it was deserved, but you shouldn't expect your unattended date to not get up and spilt while you dance with another girl.

(photo by ccpb83)

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Ready For Battle

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

If only the street artist responsible for this wonderful monument to medieval violence put a crack pipe in this twist tie warrior's hand instead of a fake sword, we'd have a new trending topic on Twitter right now.

The Beard Is Back

— By Kate Horton |

Today SF Giants closer and beard ambassador to the world Brian Wilson made his triumphant return to Twitter. You may recall Wilson got himself into a bit of hot water two seasons ago with his first Twitter account. 

No word on how Kanye West feels about his new competition for most interesting tweeter or who advised Wilson to wear that horrible droopy condom on his head.

(photo of Wilson at Twitter HQ via Aaron Durand)

Skateboarder Goes Big on Two Cops, Gets Away With It

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

The Bay Citizen has the scoop on TL badass and skateboarder Matthew Hoyt, who punched two cops in the face and got a jury to acquit him:

Hoyt says he was riding his skateboard in a bicycle lane through the Tenderloin on his way to San Francisco Pride festivities in the Civic Center on June 26 when a motorist behind him began honking his horn.

Rude words and gestures were exchanged before the driver, who Hoyt says failed to identify himself as a police officer, swerved across lanes and used his car to box the skateboarder in between parked cars.

Assuming that the driver wanted to fight, Hoyt punched him through the open window, and then grabbed his board and scrambled over the car’s hood.

The passenger, also an off-duty officer, got out of the car and Hoyt punched him in the face too.

After flipping them off and punching them in the face, they identified themselves as cops, tackled him, and knee-dropped the back of his head.  Instead of getting tossed in jail for assaulting two off-duty officers, Hoyt is now pursuing a formal complaint against the officers for beating him up “a bit.”  Rad.

(link)

Dying Breed: Jim Carrasco, Chronicle Deliveryman

— By Zach Perkins |

Not Pictured: Jim Carrasco.

Postcards From SF gives us [ie: teh people of teh interwebz] this outstanding short look at SF Chronicle deliveryman and Tenderloin icon Jim Carrasco.  

Carrasco, a “character of the night” and self described “ghost dancer” (I think that means he's like 'Dances With Crackheads' or something, via Kevin Costner,) is one of the last remaining Union newspaper deliverymen in San Francisco. He's operated in the wee hours of SF for decades and knows the characters of the street well. He himself is a great character worthy of a much longer documentary. Kind of like a Geraldo meets Atari's Paperboy in a Tenderloin back alley, but with a sense of humor and more infected needles.

Stolen Brooks Saddles: The Latest Boom Industry?

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Reader Neb hips us to this Craigslist post on the subject

I was at the Laney College flea market yesterday, and there were many, many Brooks saddles to be had, black & brown, sprung & unsprung, most in great shape, and most with the post still attached. Of course, the bikes were no longer attached, and the sellers did not appear to be avid cyclists. I asked a couple sellers and the price seems to be around $50-60.

This seems to an industry in bloom - Invest in a saddle lock, but if and when your saddle is stolen, you'll know where to find it!  

Coincidentally, my buddy Ben, he of getting-his-bike-stripped-outside-of-Doc's-Clock-then-losing-it-off-his-bike-rack fame, had two, that's right, TWO Brooks saddles stolen last month.  He built the bike up on Christmas Eve, taking all the usual precautions (chaining the saddle to the frame and wrapping the chain in a tube).  Yet, he still had his new saddle stolen 36 hours later while his bike was parked on Market outside the Westfield.  His conclusion was to buy a third, crappier saddle and take it with him every time he parked his bike.  My conclusion was that fate intended for him to be a rollerblader.

The picture above was part of the chain-breaker that the thief left at the scene of the crime, suggesting our city's crackheads have caught up to our anti-theft tricks.  I guess all that's left to do is either outfit your bike with shitty, worthless parts or, if you really want to irritate yourself, stuffing all your bolts with tinfoil and hot wax.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Shooting Last Night in Dolores

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Mike sends us this word that there was a shooting in DP last night:

FYI, there was a shooting at Dolores Park last night.

I heard the shots, and the sirens;

The cops are combing the block (20th) this AM looking for the gun…

No one at SFPD could be reached to tell us what happened.  Anyone have the details?

Update: “At least” 12 officers looking for evidence.

Update 2: Apparently SFPD returned a call to KTVU:

A 20-year-old man suffered life-threatening injuries in a shooting in San Francisco's Mission Dolores neighborhood on Friday night, one of two that occurred that night. […]

The victim was standing on a corner of [20th and Dolores] when a suspect approached and shot him multiple times before fleeing on foot, Dangerfield said.

Read on.

(pic of the crimescene by unixfuzz)

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