April 11, 2006
Laptop thieves descend upon wireless cafes...
A San Francisco finance manager stopped in at a Mission District cafe and was tapping on his laptop as he enjoyed his coffee just before noon on a Thursday. Suddenly, he was under siege.
"I looked up, and I saw this guy leaning into me as if he was asking a question,'' he said. "I leaned forward, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw someone fiddling with the computer cord. I tried to stand up, and as I stepped back, he stabbed me in the chest.''
The attack marked a violent turn in a wave of crime that has hit the city -- the "hot spots" frequented by wireless laptop users are becoming hot spots for laptop robberies.
The 40-year-old San Francisco victim of the March 16 attack suffered a partially collapsed lung and was hospitalized for six days. The two suspects fled with his Apple PowerBook, worth $2,500.
"This poor guy, who got stabbed, all he did was kind of stand up ... and almost instantaneously the guy stabbed him,'' said Inspector Robert Lynch of the San Francisco police robbery detail. "The whole thing was over in 15 seconds.''
Police say normally quiet cafes are becoming hunting grounds for laptop bandits.
"Now that we have these hot zones, people are bringing laptops out in the street, using them in public cafes,'' said police Lt. John Loftus of the robbery detail.
San Francisco police statistics show a disturbing trend. Just 18 laptop computer robberies were logged in 2004, but the figure jumped to 48 last year. There were 18 as of the end of March, a pace that could surpass 70 crimes this year.
"It's a changing culture, and crime is following it,'' Loftus said. "To the criminal element, this is a valuable piece of equipment that they can quite easily cash in on -- even otherwise law-abiding people are tempted to buy $3,000 laptops for $200 to $300 on the street.''
"Where else do you have a thousand-dollar item sitting on a table in a coffee shop?''
(h/t RealTechNews)
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