Woman wrestles phone from would-be BART thief as passenger reportedly tackles him into door

Cracked glass on a BART door after a would-be thief reportedly attempting to steal a passenger's phone resulted in a scuffle. Cracked glass on a BART door after a would-be thief reportedly attempting to steal a passenger's phone resulted in a scuffle. Photo: Courtesy Of CJ Silverio Photo: Courtesy Of CJ Silverio Image 1 of / 22 Caption Close Woman wrestles phone from would-be BART thief as passenger reportedly tackles him into door 1 / 22 Back to Gallery

CJ Silverio, CTO for the Javascript-enabling tech company npm, says she and another passenger she didn't know successfully fended off a would-be thief on BART as her train arrived at the Hayward station.

Silverio says the thief, who was with another young man, was in his "late teens" and tried to snatch her phone Monday evening. One of the young men ran off the train and the other grabbed for Silverio's phone. He was thwarted, however, when Silverio maintained her grip and another passenger "tackled him into the door," causing the window on the door to crack.

The man who pushed the teen off Silverio later told her that he had been watching the pair of them because of "the way they were acting" as they stood with their backs between the door connecting train cars.

"I was surprised by the snatch and still just yanking my phone back to myself when BAM the other passenger slammed into the guy," Silverio said. "Two fast shocks in the course of a few seconds, and I'd just barely stood up from my seat. I think the would-be thief was surprised that a dumpy middle-aged woman with graying hair turned out to be strong enough to fight back. He didn't manage to get the phone away from me at all."

Silverio says the other teenager who had run off the train looked back in to say, "Let my little brother go!" before they both ran off.

"A bricked iPhone is worth enough to steal," Silverio wrote on Twitter after the incident. "What a world. (Not a good one.)"

"I was slightly surprised the attempted theft didn't happen in the (San Francisco to) Oakland corridor proper," Silverio added. "I've read some reports of thefts on BART, and they're all either north of Coliseum station or in downtown SF. I was more surprised by the timing — it was around 6:30 p.m., which is normally commute time. But of course Monday was a holiday so ridership was lighter than usual."

Phone thefts on BART trains and platforms, including one that took place one stop away at the South Hayward station earlier this month, have spiked in the last couple years, according to officially released data, despite recently installed cameras. To try to combat the crime wave, the transit organization has hung posters advocating for riders to be aware of their surroundings.

"The posters telling you to never let your phone out of your control always read to me like an abdication of responsibility," Silverio says. "BART is just plain underfunded for its transportation mission, never mind a public safety mission. It's critical regional infrastructure, and we don't give it enough money to keep it clean and well-maintained ... Our regional refusal to invest in infrastructure results in public spaces that are unsafe to use in the evenings."

In September 2017, six passengers who had phones stolen in a "mob attack" orchestrated by 40-60 young people filed suit against BART for not doing enough to keep passengers safe.

BART spokesperson Alicia Trost says that electronic thefts have been on the decline since last March, but that it is still an issue "on and off BART."

"Last year we launched an awareness campaign that is still in place," Trost adds. "This includes station audio announcements, messages sent out in e-mailed service advisories, and an awareness poster on board trains translated into multiple languages. We've also had success in making arrests of these suspects thanks to stepped up patrols."

Alyssa Pereira is an SFGATE staff writer. Email her at apereira@sfchronicle.com or find her on Twitter at @alyspereira.

