A robbery Sunday afternoon at a popular Divisadero Street cafe involved suspects who escaped with a laptop after threatening the victim with pepper spray, police said.
The incident occurred around 1:31 p.m. at Bean Bag Cafe on the corner of Hayes Street in NoPa, when a masked suspect snatched a laptop from a customer who was sitting outside.
“I’ve come here many times. I was really just in the zone of working. All of a sudden, what felt like a dream, someone ripped the computer from my hands,” said Michael Collins, 25. “In an adrenaline moment that was not smart, I jumped after him. I tackled him and I had him, but his accomplice tried to pepper-spray me.”
Collins said the spray failed to discharge when the female accomplice attempted to use it.
“They actually managed to press the button, but it did not go off,” he said.
Collins released the male suspect from a headlock and pursued them both west toward Broderick Street.
“When I got up to that car, there were two men in the front seat, one of which had a gun, at which point I turned away,” said Collins, who works in sales for a software startup.
The other suspects got in the car, and it left, he said.
Collins considered not bothering to file a police report but credited “a nice couple” who took care of his bag when he ran off for changing his mind.
“They were a massive help, the good Samaritans that were watching,” Collins said. “That helped me deal with the situation. I wouldn’t have been able to do it alone.”
Collins tracked the laptop’s battery to Van Ness Avenue and Eddy Street, where it went offline.
Collins, who moved to San Francisco from Dallas about a year ago, said most of his data were backed up, though he lost some high-resolution photos from a soccer nonprofit he runs in Tanzania.
Collins said people in Dallas were surprised when he told them he was taking a development sales job at a software startup in the city.
“Telling them that you’re moving to San Francisco is a bit unheard of, and the reactions were ‘It’s unsafe,’ ‘You’re going to kind of a dying city,’ ‘It’s a reverse migration.’ To which I said, ‘Well, I haven’t moved there yet, and the jury’s out.'”
Despite the brazen robbery, Collins said, his first year in the city has been fantastic.
“It’s an international city. I’ve been able to meet people from Spain, Japan, Mexico, England — and become friends with them. This is the innovation capital of the world. I still feel the nature of the intelligence that’s in this city, and I love that about it.”
Collins added that he doesn’t blame the suspects; instead, he believes crime is the result of systemic neglect fostered by several Democratic politicians, including Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi.
“I don’t look at it police-wise; I don’t look at it council-wise. I think the rot starts from the top,” he said.
Mike Zagah, who has owned Bean Bag Cafe for 32 years, said the suspects’ actions were familiar.
“Unfortunately, this used to be the habit before the pandemic,” Zagah said. “We haven’t seen it since. Yesterday was the first incident since then.”
Zagah said he’s provided surveillance footage to police but expressed skepticism about the investigation based on previous unsolved break-ins at his business.
The San Francisco Police Department confirmed the incident and said no arrests had been made.