Lefty O'Doul's: Another Thief Busted?

A great place to be if you are hungry, bad place to be if you just committed a crime

​Lefty O'Doul's has garnered quite a reputation, if not for its world-famous working man's grub, then definitely for hiring the potty-mouthed Santa who was canned from Macy's for telling a dirty joke. But more recently, the Irish pub has become somewhat famous for snaring local crooks.

SF Weekly readers might recall that it was Lefty O'Doul's security camera that captured surveillance of Mark Lugo, the Picasso thief, carrying the rare 1966 sketch after ripping it off from a nearby gallery on Geary Boulevard.

Now, police think the hof brau might have cooked  another potential crook who was caught on Lefty's surveillance after allegedly robbing a nearby antique shop this week.

According to John Fair, the restaurant's manager, San Francisco police came to the pub two days ago, asking to review its security camera footage -- and they might have found just who they were looking for.

Courtesy of Lefty O'Douls

Guy #1

​The surveillance film shows two men walking past the pub. Fair says the full video shows a woman from Natalie's Antiques, where the robbery took place, chasing after the two men, who allegedly walked off with some expensive Chinese bracelets from the shop. Fair said police told him that the woman chasing the suspects tried to grab onto one of the alleged thieves at the corner, but she fell, and they got away. A woman who answered the phone at Natalie's Antiques declined to comment.

Police would only tell us that the robbery took place -- but confirmed no other details of this story. We asked Officer Carlos Manfredi, an SFPD spokesman, if police had reviewed the restaurant's video surveillance. He would only say that he'd look into it.

Courtesy of Lefty O'Douls

Guy #2

​Meanwhile, Fair and his employees are basking in what may be more miscreants identified. "We are getting used to being the reporters in the area," Fair says, with a chuckle. "Now if only we could catch those purse-snatchers."

With all the interest in the pub's surveillance footage, the owner is now considering upgrading its cameras and streaming the footage live.

"Then anyone who wants to look at it can," Fair told us.

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