Now, here's a weird story. A 23-year-old guy visiting here from L.A. last weekend and originally from Brazil made a frantic call home to Brazil to his sister on Monday before going missing. Paulo Netto was here looking at art schools, and had a bus ticket back to L.A. that he never used, and in the phone call he said he was being followed and told his sister to call police. His last known location, via his cell phone, was 505 Shotwell Street near 19th.
Netto's mother and sister are now in San Francisco looking for him, and passing around his photo in the hope that someone might have seen him. They haven't heard a word from him since Monday, and his sister says he sounded "terrified" on the phone. They've checked local hospitals, but have found no sign of him.
There are some odd details to this story, starting with the fact that he called Brazil to tell his sister to call police, instead of calling them himself. Also, he was staying at Adelaide Hostel near Union Square, but checked out on Saturday night, even though his bus ticket was on Sunday. That would lead one to believe he might have met someone he was staying with. He called home on Saturday saying he was headed home to L.A. and was taking the bus, but then we don't know what he was up to between Saturday night and Monday, when he clearly stayed over in San Francisco. Then on Monday, we're not sure at what time, he was in the Mission and saying that people were following him, and he needed help.
We hope that this is just a case of a weekend bender/passionate hookup gone a little too far, like that time that 22-year-old's mom freaked out because he came here for gay pride, met someone on Grindr, and "disappeared" for a couple of days. People are good at finding love in San Francisco, what can we say. Anyway, we hope for the best with this one.
