'Michael the Car Thief' and Pals Arrested In Ingleside Terrace

Real life imitated reel life in San Francisco this week...

One of the overlooked classic scenes in the Coen Brothers 1987 film Raising Arizona comes when the inept criminal brothers Evelle and Gale Snoat walk into the "hayseed bank" with rifles blazing, ready for a robbery. Evelle tells his brother "They're over there on the ground, like you commanded, Gale."

The elder brother grows livid and notes "I told you not to use my damn name. Can't you even try to keep from forgettin' that?" Chastened, Evelle notes, "Not even your code name?" before assuring the supine hicks on the floor "Y'all hear that? We're usin' code names."

All of which leads us to San Francisco's Ingleside Terrace neighborhood on Monday afternoon -- when a woman heard several men break into a car, then loudly implore their buddy to get a move on, while using what we're assuming wasn't his "code name."

At 1:05 p.m. -- which qualifies as broad daylight, even in the foggy Ingleside -- a woman on Urbano Drive was alerted by her barking dog before hearing breaking glass. She saw some men rifling through a vehicle -- one of whom shouted to the other, "Hurry up, Michael."

She dialed 911, and a pair of San Francisco Police Officers were dispatched to the neighborhood. The suspects' descriptions were broadcast over police radio -- and a pair of officers spotted three men matching the description strolling by on nearby Ocean and Miramar. The suspects were detained, identified by the woman, and found to have stolen property on their possession. All three were arrested and charged with burglary, conspiracy, possession of burglar tools, and receiving stolen property.

If "Forgetting to use the code names" was a crime -- well, you know.