Mysterious cyclist foils van break-in in San Francisco

Yam Haus didn’t realize they were being followed.

The Minneapolis indie band pulled up to San Francisco’s Bottom of the Hill venue while it was still light out, hours before their co-headlining Saturday night show. The band parked their van outside and carried their gear into the bar.

In retrospect, it seems obvious that something fishy was afoot. Over the course of the day, the band’s phones periodically buzzed with alerts that an AirTag was following them. But according to Alec Basse, a photographer for the band, they brushed off the notifications. 

“I think we just assumed it was each other’s AirTags,” he said.

While the band set up their equipment, Basse stood alone outside “milling about” under the venue’s awning. He noticed a gold-colored car parked at the corner, a few spaces ahead of the van, but he didn’t think much of it.

No more than 10 minutes after the band entered, two men wearing ski masks stepped out of the gold car, holding what looked to be hammers, and sidled up to Yam Haus’ van. Basse watched, frozen in place, as one of the masked men peered into the van’s windows. 

It was at this moment when a man on a bicycle whipped past. Basse “heard an impact,” then one of the men yelped. The men, apparently scared off, ran back to their car.

After scaring off the would-be burglars, the cyclist didn’t stop, Basse said. He zipped off and disappeared. Basse was left alone outside. The incident ended as suddenly as it started.

Lynn Schwarz, co-owner and head booker for Bottom of the Hill, rewatched the scene later from the venue’s security footage. She corroborated Basse’s story. “You just see a bicycle whiz by on our security footage, and then the guys are just running off, and the bike just keeps going,” she said.

Moments after the men left, four squad cars arrived at the scene, Basse said. He doesn’t know who called the police.

When Basse relayed the story to Yam Haus, the band was first shocked, then nervous. The would-be thieves could still be tracking their van, they reasoned. They scoured the inside and bottom of the car for the AirTag, eventually concluding that masked men had snagged it during the scuffle.

By the time they stepped onstage, Yam Haus had shaken off their nervousness. “By then everyone felt all right,” Basse said. 

According to Schwarz, the band voiced concerns about their van’s safety during the booking process. The last time Yam Haus performed in the Bay Area, somebody stole their belongings from their van.

Schwarz and her colleagues are looking for the mystery cyclist so that they can properly thank him. A few days after the show, Bottom of the Hill posted a missed connections post on its Facebook page with an offer of free concert tickets and some kind praise.

“Not all heroes wear capes,” the post read. “Some wear bike helmets which I guess could protect them from hammers?! Thank you to our unknown helper.”