Sacto Mayor Makes Out Like Bandit After Suffering Theft: Gavin Newsom Has Purloined Property Hand-Delivered to Capital -- Along With Swag Bag!

It wasn't this suit...

​Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson -- whose garment bag was snatched and, improbably, recovered recently in San Francisco -- received San Francisco's sincerest apologies from Mayor Gavin Newsom's office. Newsom's "friends" (that's what it said on the press release) hand-delivered the filched bag to Johnson's Sacramento office this morning. The garment bag -- which Johnson contained a special suit Johnson calls his "Rose Garden Suit" because he wore it when he met Bill Clinton at the White House a decade ago -- was swiped on Saturday when the former Cal and NBA basketball star was helping an elderly man get into a taxi near Union Square. On Tuesday, Johnson received a call from Newsom's office that a young man and his girlfriend had found the bag in the Tenderloin and turned it in.

As an added bonus, Newsom also sent along a goody basket containing San Francisco-themed items to woo the Sac-Town mayor right back into our thieving arms. Items in the basket donated by local businesses included: 49ers tickets, a six-pack of Anchor Steam beer, tickets to Beach Blanket Babylon, sourdough bread, a two-night stay at the Fairmont Hotel, Ghirardelli chocolate, a necktie from Wilkes Bashford, tickets to the wax museum, and a dinner cruise aboard the Hornblower Yacht. Wow -- when can we get our stuff stolen, too?

Johnson sounded pleased enough on his blog just to be getting his suit back. Meanwhile, SF Weekly is still awaiting a call from the Newsom's office about how the goodies made their way from San Francisco to Sacto (by train? By plane? By automobile?) -- and on whose dime.

One of Johnson's spokesmen, Joaquin McPeek, told SF Weekly that Sacto's mayor is thinking of rewarding the Good Samaritan who recovered the bag (which Johnson said he'd do on his blog). McPeek also promised to look into how the bag was delivered to the capital.

So here's our chance to play dueling flacks. Which will do his job more quickly -- or at all -- and get back to us with the answer? Will it be Sacramento's or San Francisco's?. Update to come!

UPDATE: And the winner is... Sacramento! Color us not that surprised. McPeek just informed SF Weekly that the bag is indeed safe and sound back in Sacto, but the gift basket has not yet arrived. Uh-oh. He says they expect it to arrive tomorrow -- unless it is swiped somewhere between here and there (which is highly likely). Sadly, McPeek did not know who, exactly, delivered this bag, what method of transportation to the capital was employed, and who paid for it. Getting that kind of information from Newsom's people might require a Freedom of Information Act request. And there's no gift basket for that.