Stop stealing my stuff; my ever-increasing lowered belief in the average person's level of moral decency

Contents:

• The Story
• What to do differently?
• Recent history of crime
• I have a dream

The Story

Last night, my girlfriend and I left Oakland and headed to San Fran's Golden Gate Bridge.  Before heading out, we did our ritual:

• I stripped my wallet of its contents, only bringing ID and 1 credit card, in the event that it gets stolen
• Packed camera equipment in my non-descript hiking bag, as opposed to my obvious camera equipment bag -- to make myself less of a target
• Deliberately left 1 of my camera lenses at home, in case we get robbed I'll still have at least 1 good lens.
• She brought her mace key chain which was gifted to her by a friend as a "welcome to California" present

We are cautious with every step we take, warned by:

1. her roommate had recently been robbed at gunpoint at 10am
2. numerous similar stories from friends, wherein stabbings occurred

Everyone in The Bay seems to have a "when I got robbed" story.  Now, we have one too.

After seeing the golden gate bridge, we stopped at Burger King at 9pm for some grilled chicken.  It's by one of the main downtown subway stations which looks pretty ritzy and touristy in the daytime, but it's like a weird Cinderella story, for all of the daytime tourists magically turn into homeless people at sunset.  It's a very ghetto area.

Out of my peripheral, I saw 3 dudes waltz into the store.  One of them snuck up behind my girlfriend and hit her table w/ their hand.  We were confused what he just did, so we turned towards them, as if to say "What just happened?  Did you do something?"  They had turned away from us and were heading towards the exit while hiding their faces.

We instantly figured out that they must have stolen something.  Without knowing what it was, I grabbed/carried my camera equipment hiking bag in my right hand and sprinted down Market Street after them.  It was completely dark out, and I yelled "Thieves!  They stole my wallet!" in hopes others would help stop them.  I caught up with one of them as they split in a nearby park.  He looked 16-17 years old and said "I ain't got it" and patted his pockets to show.  I quickly left and started to pursue the other 2 but then realized I lost them in the crowd of vagrants which filled the park.  Passerbys then turned to me and offered to call 911 for help.

To make it worse, turns out, there were at least 7 nearby security guards and/or subway police officers (with cars) who offered no help during this, even though many of the store security guards watched me as I ran past their storefronts.  How could they not simply sack the thieves or make any attempt at all?  In Southeast Asia or Georgia, I feel there's definitely a higher chance someone would have done something.

Turns out, they stole my girlfriend's iPhone which was sitting on the table in front of her.

We called the cops 4 separate times, thinking Burger King's security camera would be useful.  To no avail, the police never showed up as we waited for them over an hour.

I am grateful though that 2 guys who witnessed this ordeal turned to me afterwards and immediately offered help by calling 911 on my behalf, helped pin down security guards (which unfortunately were of no use), and for walked back with me to Burger King as they cursed the thieves, lack of nearby help, and overall horrible crime problem.

What to do differently?

Sadly, SF police apparently never show up to thief incidents like these.  So, I keep replaying it in my head, wondering what I could have done differently.  I devoted 0 time to the one kid I caught up with.  Looking back, he was my only lead.  I couldn't have hit him:

• He looked 17ish, thus a minor
• I truly don't think he had the phone
• I had my expensive (25 lb) camera equipment bag in my right hand and wasn't even in a position to fight
• Most importantly, two wrongs don't make a right; more violence isn't the answer.  Violence is the problem.  Heck, even if if the above conditions were different and I did rough him up, that would likely make matters worse:
• His crew were likely watching me from the pool of vagrants 60 feet away (I didn't get a good look at their clothes and lost them in the bunch) and could have easily exacted revenge on me either there in the park are after following me back.
• Even if no harm happened to me, that would surely only further encourage the punks to carry knives and/or a gun -- being robbed via knife is a very common occurrence here already.

Recent history of crime

• August 27, 2013 (San Francisco): guys stole my girlfriend's iPhone

• June 1, 2013 (New Jersey): someone backed their car into mine in a residential parking lot, knocking out my headlight, denting car some, and didn't leave a note.

• December 23,  2012 (Boston Train Station): while washing my hands in the restroom, someone stole my messenger bag with laptop in it, despite my keeping and eye on it.  Sprinted out after them, security guards tracked him down and returned laptop.

• November 28, 2012 (Providence, RI): people broke into my apartment while I was away

• August, 2012 (Siem Reap, Cambodia): hotel staff stole my Kindle Fire from my luggage in room while I was away.

• May, 2012 (Boston): someone broke into my car, stole stereo, and stabbed the subwoofer because they were unable to remove it from my car

• February, 2012 (Boston): condo repairmen stole my GPS from my place while I wasn't home

I have a dream

You get the idea.  I've always been pretty minimal, but with these events, it's as if I have to be on guard of my items 24/7, yet most of these times there's nothing I could do to prevent it.  Having so many occurrences of thief definitely throws off one's concept of owning a product and oddly kind of reverses the stock one places in material possessions.

Imagine that you previously viewed semi-costly gadgets as being nothing too important, just a nice treat which if stolen is replaceable.  Yet, naturally over time, one starts to be on perpetual guard of any (e.g., one's wallet, phone, or laptop while in a library) out of necessity, or face being robbed.  This naturally then makes one redefine the stock placed on that material good.  It doesn't make me desire or love the item any more, it just creates an unhealthy level of awareness of having to protect your stuff.  One shouldn't have to worry about protecting everything and protecting themselves.

Since today is the 50th anniversary of MLK's speech, and since I'm currently staying on a street named after him, maybe it's suiting for me to proclaim a dream: I dream we could all live in a world/community where there was such an abundance of mutual trust, respect, and integrity that we wouldn't have to worry about petty thief, having to lock our homes at night, or having to buy security systems and insurance and on everything we have -- that we need not worry about the character of our neighbors, for we could rest assured and treat each other like our own brothers and sisters, as we live as if one big family.

Yea, the nature of humankind will never reach that equilibrium point, heh.  So, in the meantime, whenever I buy a house, I suppose it should just be a castle... with a moat.  And alligators.  And archmen.   Oh yea, and definitely a drawbridge for the moat.  It's not complete with a drawbridge.