I was walking to Office Depot on Geary/Masonic for lunch. This guy runs out of Mervyn’s, TOTALLY in a hurry. I thought “Wow, this guy must be late for a lunch date!” He had jumped on his bicycle and took off like a bolt of lightning. Next thing, this guy runs out and yells “Someone call the police!”
I had my cell so I ran up to him and asked what happened. He said a guy had robbed the jewelery case of diamond rings, and fortunately no one was hurt.
So I called 911 on my cell phone. It rings and rings and then I’m put on hold even after I told them there had been a robbery.
Finally a guy comes on and sounds totally confused. By this time, I realize the clerk who was behind the counter at the time had managed to get through, so I hung up and waited for the police.
It took most of half an hour for the police to show up. While I was expecting to see lights and hear sirens and have bullet-proof stormtroopers appear looking to kick ass and take names. Some tired looking guys in uniforms show up and all they do is write down my name, number, where I work, and a description of what I saw. It was a bit embarrassing standing outside with a policeman while people were walking by looking at me as if I had done something naughty. 8)
A few minutes into this, a woman came in and said “have you been robbed?” to the clerk “there are a bunch of rings outside.”
Sure enough, in a place further west on Geary there were rings out on the sidewalk. Strangely enough, there wasn’t a feeding frenzy near the bus stop.