Sandy MaloneSan Francisco, CA – A bystander who was filming a thief at a Walgreens in San Francisco got battered by bananas when the masked man saw what he was doing and got angry (video below).
The recent incident occurred while a man was openly stealing merchandise at the Walgreens at 42nd and Geary in outer Richmond, KGO reported.
A video filmed by a customer Nicholas Stennet, who was shopping when the thefts occurred, showed a man dressed in black behind the counter filling up a big tote bag while employees watched.
One of the employees was on the phone with 911, huddled just feet away from the thief.
“We have this person that is taking everything from the counter… can you send them right away please?” the woman was telling the dispatcher in the video.
The video showed the thief calmly loading his back from the shelves and display racks.
“He goes behind the counter taking stuff, maybe some COVID tests, a tray of batteries, some electronics,” Stennet told KGO.
Stennet, who is a professional photographer, said he wasn’t going to confront the thief after he watched him knock the phone out of the hands of another customer he caught filming with a cell phone, KGO reported.
But he continued to film as that customer tried to confront the thief after he made his way out from behind the Walgreens counter and hiked his bag of booty up on his shoulder, the video showed.
“What, you wanna go?” the thief asked the customer.
Then he reached over and picked up a bunch of bananas that were on a display rack beside the counter and threw it hard at the customer’s head.
There was an audible sound in the video as the bananas broke apart into pieces when they hit the man.
The video showed the customer picked up one of the fallen bananas from the floor and fired it back at the thief, who was making his way to the exit of the store.
“No, no, no, no, we don’t need that,” an employee said as she tried unsuccessfully to stop him.
The banana struck the thief’s back and the man stopped, the video showed.
Then he stepped back to a display rack and hurled several packages of cookies at the customer who had thrown the banana.
“The guy (the suspect) then comes back with some Chips Ahoy to throw back at him!” Stennet told KGO.
The video ended after the thief hitched up his bag of stolen goods and sauntered out of the store.
Stennet said he hoped his video would be helpful to the police investigation of the incident, KGO reported.
“If there’s no gun involved I’m not scared of bananas and Chips Ahoy,” he joked. “If I can raise a little awareness and help with the prosecution that would be nice.”
Watch the incident unfold in the video below:
Holly Matkin
