Proving that West Oakland is in fact still a rough place in which you don't want to take any unnecessary pauses, a cyclist was struck by a pickup truck there on Tuesday, and thieves immediately arrived to steal the wallets of both the unconscious, seriously wounded cyclist, and the driver of the pickup.
As CBS 5 reports, the cyclist, 25-year-old Greg Lowrie, was traveling on the wrong side of the street and was struck by an 81-year-old driver in a pickup traveling west on 8th Street.
And as is customary in the neighborhood, after the pickup stopped and the driver got out to check on the victim, a gang of thieves appeared and demanded his wallet, stealing the wallet of the prone Lowrie as well. Neighbors say this happens all the time.
Lowrie remains in critical condition at Highland Hospital, and as CBS 5 reports in an update, he has a heart condition that is complicating his recovery. His mother, with whom he was living in an RV in a homeless encampment in West Oakland near the scene of the crash, says, "They’re trying to get his brain stable, but his heart won’t pump enough blood."
Margaret Lowrie defends West Oakland, saying, "I’ve made more friends there in the year I’ve been living there than I have in all of Berkeley for 25 years," but she admits there have been "bad episodes," and their RV has been broken in to.