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SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) – Thieves are targeting gyms in San Francisco’s Marina neighborhood. A manager of a pilates studio there tells KRON4 two customers had their belongings stolen there on Monday.
The manager of Bodyrok says two women walked in pretending to be regulars., even saying to the instructor that they loved class last week. But instead of taking a class, they stole belongings from gym-goers. The manager says the women also hit other studios in the area.
Sarah Byun went to a Bodyrok class Monday afternoon at the Fillmore and Lombard location in San Francisco. She checked in like normal and put her bag on a bench behind the pilates machine like she would during any other class.
Little did she know she would get her wallet stolen during the workout.
“In about five minutes noticed some women sitting behind me, right directly behind me, which I thought was odd,” she said. “The woman next to me looked back after our first warm-up and noticed her bag was missing. So I went over to my bag. It was open and my wallet was missing.”
The two women called police and filed a report. The studio also shared surveillance video with investigators.
In a snapshot from that video, you can see one of the women involved in a black hat at the check-in desk. Bodyrok’s manager says the woman was pretending to be a client before grabbing people’s belongings and taking off.
Byun says she quickly canceled all her cards, which prevented the thieves from spending her money.
“We received a fraud alert within a few minutes that there was an unauthorized charge at CVS nearby for $1,800,” Byun said. “Thankfully they were able to flag that so that the charge did not go through.”
The manager says the thieves hit multiple other gyms in the area, grabbing items that weren’t stowed in lockers.
Bodyrok is now taking measures to protect its clients. The studio is locking the doors between classes and encouraging clients to use the lockers provided instead of leaving valuables out.
But during a 4 p.m. class Wednesday, KRON4 saw people inside the studio leaving their bags on the same bench Byun did. Byun says it’s a shame you even have to worry about this at the gym.
“Shocked. When I go into a workout class for an hour or 45 minutes, it’s usually an escape for a little bit of time and to have something happen like that in broad daylight in broad daylight in a studio while I’m working out is shocking,” she said.
“It is an ongoing issue for people who are trying to live a good healthy life here, and in a city that should otherwise be clean and taken care of,” said the gym manager, who asked KRON4 not to include her name.
KRON4 reached out to San Francisco police with the case number to get an update on the investigation and to confirm if more gyms had been targeted but did not hear back in time for this story.
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