From today’s Matier & Ross column in the SF Chronicle:
We couldn’t make this up: San Francisco cops got a call the other day from a Public Works street-cleaning team that couldn’t get around a couple of passed-out inebriates at Mason and Market streets.
Sgt. Joe Garrity arrived, called for a van to take the drunks to a shelter and started to wake up everyone for the ride. He noticed that one of the drunks was
sleeping on a leather jacket and using a motorcycle helmet as a pillow.
A little odd, but what the heck. It was the Tenderloin, where things are always a little odd.
Garrity managed to get the drunk, whose name was Rick, to stand up — although not very steadily.
Everything was going fine until the van arrived. Then Rick started getting belligerent, telling Garrity, “I’m not going anywhere without my bike. ”
“What bike?” Garrity asked.
“That one,” Rick said, pointing to a Harley-Davidson parked in the middle of the sidewalk.
“That’s yours?” the incredulous Garrity asked.
“Yep, that’s Rick’s bike,” said one of the drunk’s friends.
The bike didn’t have any plates on it, so Garrity called in a quick check of its vehicle ID.
Sure enough, the 2003 Sportster 1200 was indeed registered to Rick.
Rick then told Garrity that he’d just bought the Harley from the Dudley Perkins dealership in San Francisco for $7,000 — and that he’d made the money panhandling on the street.
“It took me three years,” Rick said proudly.