"Mob of Folks" Go After Bobby the Bike Thief

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.

Comments (21)

Bobby clearly needs a beat down

I live right there street and saw the whole thing from my window.

Too bad the kids smashed some other guys truck. Seems like the bike thief wasn’t the notorious Bobby but some crackhead / whoever who steals shit for Bobby / with Bobby? Who knows. But what actually happened, and Man Freckles shouldnt be such a happy bitch about it all, is that yes the stolen goods were in a red truck, but a very similar red truck that belongs to some old dude, not Bobby.

Bobby’s truck is different, so the thief put the wheels in the wrong truck, and obviously they likely didnt know that, but the moral of the story is two wrongs don’t make a right. Go FEB yourself silly to your D Park orgy, and try not to be an asshole, and don’t smash shit.

Unless you’re hitting Bobby in the face. That would be great.

Wait. How does that work? Did the “old dude” just happen to ALSO have a red pickup with a black topper over by the Dovre club, so that the crackhead could put the wheel in it? And then the aforementioned innocent old dude drove home, which also just happens to be right next to Bobby the Bike Thief’s place, in order for the wheel to be found in his truck there? Those are some mighty big coincidences right there.

Nice try, Bobby.

Sounds like a bunch of random coincidences. Right. BOBBY’S TRUCK IS A DIFFERENT RED TRUCK WITH STOLEN STUFF NOT THIS ONE HURR DURR listen to yourself. That dude did the right thing, and got his wheel back.

My biggest wish in this is that the idiot with his mob would have been shot after pounding his way into someone’s apartment.

You’re not the law. You’re not “taking back your streets”. You’re a fucking mob and mobs are illegal for a reason. You don’t have the right to convict and punish people on the spot because you are not infallible. Call 911 or wave down one of the many cops driving around the area and let them check it out. I know your little hipster, anti-establishment hearts don’t believe it, but they will do as you ask. And then the guy will be arrested and he really won’t do that shit any more.

Jesus, fucking Christ. A mob of angry people is way more dangerous to a neighborhood than a bike wheel thief.

To be fair, cyclists have called the police on this thug countless times SFPD has consistently neglected to do a damn thing. Considering this guy has been a known problem for almost two years, you would think they’d handle it.

I’m generally in agreement that angry mobs are a bad way for society to provide equitable justice. However, this appears to be a pretty tame case, and if you have a chance to recover your stolen property I suspect taking it isn’t a bad idea. It’s not as if law enforcement will recover it, unless a stroke of extreme luck happens, or you’re the police chief. Not blaming the police on this one either, they do not have enough resources to track down lost wheels (though a wheel ain’t cheap), and this thief isn’t violent.

All that said, they didn’t burn down the thief’s apartment. They didn’t rampage through the streets with furniture fragments and kill a poet also named Bobby - this isn’t the Senate mob of ancient Rome. They took back a bike wheel and tried to make sure it was the right one. Breaking the window was a bad move, but I see a lot of broken car windows in the Mission with less justification, and less outrage.

Way to inject some rationality into the debate, hoboking.

Also, if the cops get involved the bike wheel likely becomes evidence. Which means you’re still assed out on getting your stuff back with any sort of urgency.

Anyone who has had to deal with recovering stolen property knows how shitty of a situation the whole thing becomes.

Either Bobby got a black cap for his truck bed or he’s working with a buddy with an identical truck.

CA LIC 4R23492

If they know specifically what truck belongs to this thief dude why doesn’t someone just steal a wheel or two off his truck? That would certainly slow down his getaways.

Oh, Manfreckles. You so silly.

You know what’s really funny? I was outside Pop’s having a smoke a couple of weeks ago and your friend Yasure took a break from tagging everything in site to ask Bobby what he had for sale. Classy.

And it’s interesting that you and your crew draw the line at smashing someone’s window but have no problem defacing public and private property with your shitty tags.

Tell your friends to stop buying shit from that asshole before you get all high and might with your street justice.

Touche’

the plot thickens. This is like a 30s radio serial. And now we find out that everybody in this story is dirty.

Shitty tags for sure. Thanks for dishonoring the month of my birth with that zero-talent boring-as-shit FEB tag. Come on. The crazy homeless guy with the bike helmet and the bird noises could probably tag better. With no arms, using a Crayola washable stuck in his ass.

Also, not exactly related to this particular comment, the SFPD will indeed touch Bobby. I live real close by, and have personally witnessed his ass cuffed and stuffed into a cruiser a couple times. So report his shit to the cops. Your goofy hipster justice is useless. Now he needs to steal more bikes/parts/etc to pay for a broken windshield.

was trying to get a photo of him you idiot

so bobby didn’t get a beating? you call yourselves a mob? that dude stole my wheel once.

There are times when rough justice is in order.

Fuck Everything Bobby

I sucked Bobbies cock in a trashcan.