San Francisco's unluckiest thief

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 7/21/10 | Demian Bulwa, Chronicle Staff Writer

[SmithL]

There are unlucky thieves, and then there is Horatio Toure.

According to San Francisco police, the 31-year-old city resident rode a bicycle up to a woman Monday afternoon in the South of Market neighborhood, snatched an iPhone out of her hands, and then pedaled away.

Problem was, the woman was carrying the phone as part of a company's demonstration of a real-time GPS tracking program. If the bandit would have taken a peek at the screen, he would have seen himself traveling across a map of San Francisco.

Toure was captured a half-mile away about 10 minutes later, at 4:01 p.m., said police Sgt. Troy Dangerfield. He was booked into jail on suspicion of grand theft and possession of stolen property.

"This reminds me of the bank robber who arrives during the security test," said the phone's owner, David Kahn.

[Windflier]

"...city resident..."

Uh-huh. Sounds like one of those "displaced foreign travelers" to me.

[research99]

Here’s the Facebook page for the alleged perp “Horatio”

http://www.facebook.com/people/Horatio-Toure/100000955175743

[sphinx]

Unlucky and incompetent. It took the police 10 minutes to track him down. A DC thief would have had it sold and scored his next fix in that much time.

[TChad]

When I lived in San Francisco, a thief stole my car stereo. It must have required a lot of squirming around to remove the stereo, because his wallet (with driver's license) fell onto the floor in front of the front passenger seat. I found it the next morning. The police came by and had a good laugh while they took my info. While we were talking, a neighbor walked up and told the police that she had watched the theft from her living room window at 2 a.m. She provided a complete description of the thieves -- young Asian males -- and the license number of the car they had been driving.

The father of the kid who dropped the wallet eventually paid for my replacement stereo.

All in all, a somewhat less than perfect crime.

[raybbr]

. While we were talking, a neighbor walked up and told the police that she had watched the theft from her living room window at 2 a.m.

Why didn't she call the cops?

[Windflier]

That might be his FB page. Who knows? A lot of people have the same names in this world.

There’s nothing on the page that lends a clue as to whether that’s the perp or not.

[TChad]

Why didn't she call the cops?

I remember wondering about that, but I never asked her. We were acquaintances, not friends. I was grateful that she came forward, and I did not want for the question to be interpreted as an accusation that she did not do enough.