C4-Toting Robbers Pilfer Electronics Stores

Harald Hansen

Here's a new way to get a computer

​A pair of electronics stores were knocked over on successive days by robbers who scared the bejesus out of the cashier by claiming they had C4 explosives.

On Dec. 23, a man who'd stepped out of an electronics store on Market and Fifth at 3:45 p.m. to "check on his ability to pay" for a laptop found a novel way of taking possession of the computer. He grabbed a few more electronic devices and told the clerk "put everything in the bag, I have C4," pointing to a "taped, black, box-shaped item." C4 man was joined by another suspect; they were described as white and Asian gents of unknown ages.

One day later, at the Radio Shack on Lombard and Octavia, C4 was again evoked during a electronics shop robbery.

This time, however, San Francisco Police officers apprehended one of the two men -- both described as Caucasian -- as he fled on foot from the Christmas Eve robbery. The Dec. 24 crime is currently categorized as part of a "series"; the rationale is that it'd be eerily coincidental for independent thieves to concoct the fake (?) C4 robbery ploy at the simultaneously.



In the meantime, it would seem one, two, or perhaps more of the C4 gang are on the loose. Whether they are actually toting powerful explosives -- and are willing to blow themselves to bits if denied the electronic devices -- is unknown.

Police, however, are leaning toward the thesis that the "taped, black, box-shaped item" is just a taped, black box.

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