An attempted flash mob robbery at BART’s Coliseum Station in Oakland was foiled by a 62-year-old passenger who intervened and recovered an iPhone that had been snatched from a woman.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that the flash mob consisted of teens who grabbed a woman’s phone, then began “punching and kicking a 62-year-old passenger who chased them and demanded the return of the device.” The passenger was able to recover the phone for the woman and “at least 10 fleeing juveniles were intercepted by a special BART team dedicated to fighting robberies on the transit system.”
As it turns out, the 62-year-old passenger who recovered the phone was an off-duty security guard named Leonard Brown. He was hailed as as hero upon returning the phone to the woman, but refused that title, saying, “This is not my first rodeo.”
The woman had allegedly been lured into a particular seat on a BART car, believing the teens were just being nice. But when the train stopped, they allegedly grabbed her phone and ran, which is when Brown sprung into action.
Flash mob robberies in BART Stations were up 45% during the first quarter of 2017 versus the same time frame in 2016. Moreover, the most recent robbery was preceded by a similar April 22 robbery, as Breitbart News noted at the time. That robbery involved dozens of teens who robbed passengers throughout a train. The BART system as a whole has struggled with crime and sanitation issues, as the network has struggled to deal with the problems of increasing commuter demand and a growing homeless population.
AWR Hawkins is the Second Amendment columnist for Breitbart News and host of Bullets with AWR Hawkins, a Breitbart News podcast. He is also the political analyst for Armed American Radio. Follow him on Twitter: @AWRHawkins. Reach him directly at awrhawkins@breitbart.com.
Photo: file
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