Off-duty CHP officer’s personal gun stolen from car

A man died Thursday night after stepping into the path of a car on Interstate 80 in Vallejo, triggering a chain reaction crash. A man died Thursday night after stepping into the path of a car on Interstate 80 in Vallejo, triggering a chain reaction crash. Photo: California Highway Patrol Photo: California Highway Patrol Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Off-duty CHP officer’s personal gun stolen from car 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A gun belonging to an off-duty California Highway Patrol officer was stolen out of his personal car in the South of Market neighborhood, the latest in a string of firearms taken in what San Francisco’s police chief called the city’s “auto burglary problem.”

The officer’s car was parked at Eighth and Howard streets when it was broken into about 8:30 p.m. Sunday, said CHP Officer Vu Williams, an agency spokesman.

The stolen gun was the officer’s personal firearm and was stored in a backpack in the front seat, Williams said.

The officer immediately alerted the San Francisco Police Department, which has jurisdiction, Williams said. The gun has not been found.

CHP policy requires on-duty officers with agency-issued weapons to secure them in the car’s lock bar or lock them in the trunk. But the policy does not extend to off-duty officers and their personal property.

“When you’re off-duty, it’s essentially your responsibility to secure it properly and in a reasonable manner,” Williams said. “Based on our policy for when you’re on duty, it doesn’t really apply to when you’re off-duty. We’re looking into it to see if there has been any violation of policy, but we have not come into a decision of whether we will investigate the officer for something he did wrong.”

Williams declined to identify the officer. He works out of the CHP’s San Francisco office on Eighth Street near Highway 101, a few blocks from where his car was broken into.

In July, a federal agent’s gun stolen in a car burglary four days earlier was used to fatally shoot a woman walking with her father on Pier 14 in San Francisco. The defendant in that case, Juan Francisco Lopez-Sanchez, has pleaded not guilty to murder.

A gun taken from an unlocked car near Fisherman’s Wharf on either Sept. 30 or Oct. 1 was used in the robberies and killings of a 23-year-old Canadian backpacker in Golden Gate Park and a 67-year-old Tantra teacher hiking on a Marin County trail, authorities said.

“We have an auto burglary problem in San Francisco,” said Police Chief Greg Suhr. “We tell everybody, ‘Don’t leave anything within the passenger compartment of your car.’ So it seems to go without saying that on the top of that list is anything that would have any lethality involved.”

Vivian Ho is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: vho@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @VivianHo