SF Man Robbed At Gunpoint For Eggs
The victim was robbed of all 10 cartons of 5 dozen eggs he had purchased.
COSTCO WHOLESALE, SAN FRANCISCO - A man was loading goods into his car Wednesday morning in the Costco parking lot when he was robbed of his eggs at gunpoint.
The victim, who identified himself by his first name Cesar to protect his privacy, showed up early to Costco on Sunday morning and found himself among a mass of people who were also looking to purchase eggs before they ran out. When the Costco opened, they immediately ran to the eggs section and began jostling and fighting with each other to secure their share of the precious poultry product. Others began stealing cartons of eggs from other shoppers when they left their carts unattended.
Americans have struggled with a nationwide egg shortage due to an outbreak of avian influenza that has infected, killed, or led to the culling of hundreds of millions of egg-laying chickens. However, this is the first reported case of egg shortages leading to violence.
After Cesar checked out and began loading his car in the first floor parking lot, he was approached by a masked man on a cargo bike wearing a Verkada branded puffer jacket. “He told me to load the eggs into his cargo bike and I told him to go [purchase eggs] himself,” said Cesar. “Then he pulled a gun on me, so I didn’t have a choice but to do what he said.”
Cesar was robbed of all 10 cartons of 5 dozen eggs he had purchased, “just in case the shortage gets worse.” When Halting Problem pressed him on why he purchased $500 worth of eggs, he admitted that he “maybe was going to sell some of the extras on Facebook Marketplace.”
The assailant fled the scene on his cargo bike but was not apprehended as of press time. When reached for comment, a SFPD representative laughed uncontrollably and then hung up. On the other hand, the San Francisco Costco has taken the incident seriously, hiring armed guards to guard the egg section and restricting egg purchases to a maximum of 5 dozen per member.
Cesar is shaken by the experience but not entirely surprised. “Now I gotta figure out what I’m gonna eat for breakfast for the next few weeks,” he said. “In the meantime, maybe I’ll go buy a cargo bike…”