Treasure Island

Such a beautiful day in the city. We had had some really hazy days until a fierce wind came through. I was supposed to have taken BART into the city for a Dreamweaver class, Landis volunteered to drive me in instead. The city looked so clear that we decided to grab the camera and take some pictures/panos from Treasure Island before he dropped me off at my class. We had been scouting the area for weeks waiting for just such a day.

Treasure Island is sort of unpopulated. About 1,400 people live there according to the 2000 census. It's an artificial island created for the Golden Gate International Exposition in 1939. The raised walkway that circumscribes the island is pretty popular for recreational purposes. You can get wonderful views there of the city and of sea lions in the water. It's also a great place to be for the KFOG Kaboom! in May (a fireworks show put on by a local radio station).

We parked the car with an hour to spare before my class. We set up and began panoramizing. On our way around the tripod a large vehicle, Bronco like, pulled into the scarce parking area next to my car. We waited for the vehicle to move out of the frame before continuing the last few shots. We snapped some other photos with another lens and got back into the car to drive to a potential next location. That didn't work out. Time to move on to class.

We get across the bridge navigated to about a block away from my class and I reached down to grab something from my bag on the passenger side front seat. NO BAG! My rucksack had been taken. Absolutely everything was in there. My intention had been to keep busy on BART; a book, iPod, car keys, wallet, etc… After flipping out a little I realized that Landis and I watched as my bag was taken out of my car. It travelled off the island not with my car but with the Bronco-like vehicle that had parked next to us for a few moments while we waited for it get out of frame.

When this happened Landis and I were just across that street and the parking area was sort-of in front of a San Francisco Police substation. I cancelled all my cards but the thieves still managed to get $230 worth of goods from merchants, $90 at Burger King alone: YUCK!

This happened on December 17th. It's a good thing my family has come to expect home-made Kahlua from us instead of gifts from retailers. Also, I was looking to upgrade my iPod from the third generation 40G that I had. I guess I'll just have to find a deal at MacWorld and upgrade sooner than expected.

USA-Canada / USA-California

Lat: 37° 49' 3.27" N
Long: 123° 23' 22.41" W

Elevation: 5ft

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: High. Pinpoints the exact spot.