SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tennis star Serena Williams should file a police report after she said someone tried to steal her cellphone at a restaurant, San Francisco police said Thursday.
Officer Grace Gatpandan said police would like to know if they are dealing with a serial cellphone thief.
Williams said on her Facebook page that she was having a Chinese dinner on Tuesday when she noticed a man lurking near her table. Her cellphone was on the chair next to her, and at some point the man grabbed it and left, she said.
Surveillance footage shows Williams leaving the restaurant and confronting the man on the sidewalk. Williams said she asked the man if he had accidentally taken the wrong phone, and he said he had before giving it back.
Danny Snyder, an employee at Mission Chinese Food, where Williams was dining, said the restaurant has never previously had anyone come in and try to steal a phone. He said Williams has eaten at the restaurant before.
Williams’ Facebook post shows her in a ‘Supergirl’ costume.
“Always keep your things close,” she wrote. “Fight for what’s right. Stand for what you believe in! Be a superhero!”
Gatpandan had a slightly different message. She said police don’t encourage people to go after cellphone thieves.
“The thing with cellphone snatchers is you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” she said. “You don’t know if they’re a serial thief. You don’t know if they’re armed.”
—
We now have video to go along with Serena Williams’ vivid account of how she ran after a man who tried to take off with her cell phone in San Francisco.
ABC News has nabbed surveillance footage of the entire incident, which Williams described on her Facebook page Wednesday. The No. 1 ranked women’s tennis player said she was eating dinner at a Chinese restaurant when a man awkwardly picked up her phone and walked outside.
The video shows the tennis champ dodging customers and rushing out of the restaurant before confronting the man outside.
According to ABC, Serena asked dude if he mistakenly took the wrong phone, not wanting to make any more of a scene. The man said he did make the “mistake” because it was “so confusing in the restaurant,” and gave it back to her.
Watch below:
(Photos: Serena Williams FB)
Like BlackAmericaWeb.com on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter.
