Minutes after a group visiting from Tennessee and Kentucky had their car broken into and robbed, they managed to disrupt the burglary of another vehicle and even get their items returned.
It’s a familiar tale in San Francisco; a group of tourists from out of town parks their vehicle at a parking lot near a popular attraction, and return later to find their windows broken and possessions stolen. But there was a third chapter to the story Saturday near Baker Beach, as a group who’d found their own car robbed tell NBC Bay Area they thwarted another robbery and got a victim’s items back.
We had a wild day on Saturday! A surreal mix of blessing and curse…joy and sadness. Thanks to @markdietrichsf and @CJBergmen for helping us through. Looking forward to visiting #SanFrancisco again someday when the policing prosecution are more sensible. https://t.co/UpLhSh9v5j
— Clifton Roth (@Cliftonroth) November 15, 2021
Kentucky ministry director Clifton Roth was pretty stoked to make the local news — and who wouldn’t be? — after his group’s visit went south when they were parked Saturday around Baker Beach. They returned to find their rental car broken into and robbed, and called for a tow truck. While waiting, they experienced another smash-and-grab in progress.
In the words of NBC Bay Area, “one of them yelled at the would-be thieves. While the other threw a rock at their car, scaring them off before they could break in.”
'When you have been hurt like that, when you've been hurt and victimized like that,” Roth told NBC Bay Area. “You see someone else. It's natural to respond. To me, that seems like the natural human response.”
Roth and his group would be rewarded for their Samaritan turn. A cyclist (tagged in the above tweet) stopped to help, and put out a little social media announcement about the stolen stuff. Among the lost items was “an army backpack with special meaning to one of the visitors, who served two tours in Iraq,” according to NBC Bay Area.
Lo and behold, someone did find the items dumped on the street, and posted this to social media so that Roth and crew got their items back.“Even though we experienced some of the darkness in San Francisco right now, we also experienced the light,” Roth told NBC Bay Area.
Related: Tourists Keep Coming to SF Despite Many Stories About the City Going to Hell [SFist]
Image: Matthew L. via Yelp
