
Pretty crazy story posted today on the
Columbia Heights Listserve -- a patron in the locker room of the Washington Sports Club says he noticed a guy with bolt cutters trying to open a locker. Apparently that's not too unusual, as the staff have a pair in case people forget their combos, but when the patron came back, he noticed his lock had been changed. He confronted the man, struggled for the man's bag a bit, something fell out and the man ran off.
The patron started chasing the guy, and during this time, there was a towel person in the locker room who didn't do anything. He chased the guy through the club, yelling "thief!" but again nobody on staff did anything. Then near the door of DCUSA, where the security guard is posted, the patron yelled the man had stolen his stuff. The security guard didn't do anything either, and the man ran outside.
Luckily, an off duty Metro police officer heard the commotion and caught the guy. They found the patron's wallet, as well as another person's, and when they went back to the locker room they found the patron's computer and such, which had fallen out of the thief's bag.
Pretty crazy, in that neither the WSC staff and the DCUSA security guard did anything. The patron said the WSC staff seemed "blase" about it and wondered if they were in on it or something, since the man had a pair of bolt cutters.
Weird story. Anybody else have any negative experiences with the WSC or DCUSA staff about thefts? This is the kind of stuff that could make people stop going to the shopping center. And of course, I assume the story is true, as it doesn't raise any red flags for me -- unlike the
last DCUSA crime story I remember, which turned out to be
a hoax.