Robberies San Francisco

He called himself "a bum" on national TV and lost a job after admitting to breaking into vending machines with a tire iron. Now the man accused of killing his partner and robbing $300,000 from the armored car he was hired to guard is being held without bail in Utah after confessing, officials say.

Acting on an anonymous tip early Thursday, San Francisco police recovered two female koalas that had been stolen from the city's zoo the day before and restored them to their ecstatic keepers. Hours later, two teenagers were arrested and charged in the case. Police said the youths, ages 17 and 15, apparently hoped to present the cuddly marsupials to their girlfriends as belated Christmas offerings.

San Francisco police said they arrested a man suspected of attacking a 16-year-old girl with an ax during the robbery of her mother's copy store. Alvin Haynes, 32, was was taken into custody after his sister called police and said her brother was ready to turn himself in, police said. Investigators believe Haynes entered the store and asked to use the bathroom, before taking an ax from a toolbox and holding it to the throat of Melody Lacy, 33.

A highly disciplined ring of Colombian jewel thieves apparently has struck again, netting $2 million in gems, gold and black pearls in a Chinatown heist, police said Tuesday. The lightning-like robbery fits the pattern of a gang that has struck dozens of times in California in recent years. The Chinatown attack occurred in broad daylight Monday , said San Francisco police Inspector Robert Paco.

A robbery suspect has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a man who tried to stop an attack on a woman near Fisherman's Wharf. Robert White, 35, was charged Thursday in the death of Michael Stuckey, who was stabbed in the chest when he came to the aid of the woman. The robbery victim, Susan Sloan of San Francisco, said she was walking on Bay Street, carrying groceries home, when a man grabbed her from behind at Taylor Street.

More than 15 people have been robbed during the past 10 days by so-called "oilcan bandits," who greased a hilly street in an inner-city neighborhood and then pounced on stalled motorists, authorities said. Police put a temporary stop to the street crimes by stationing marked patrol cars at the oiled-down intersection in the city's Army Street thoroughfare near U.S. 101.

Acting on an anonymous tip early Thursday, San Francisco police recovered two female koalas that had been stolen from the city's zoo the day before and restored them to their ecstatic keepers. Hours later, two teenagers were arrested and charged in the case. Police said the youths, ages 17 and 15, apparently hoped to present the cuddly marsupials to their girlfriends as belated Christmas offerings.

Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Darryl Shannon suffered a broken nose and bruised right eye after being robbed early Wednesday morning. According to a San Francisco police report, an intoxicated Shannon, whose team played at San Jose on Thursday, was beaten after he went searching for a group of people who stole his coat.

He called himself "a bum" on national TV and lost a job after admitting to breaking into vending machines with a tire iron. Now the man accused of killing his partner and robbing $300,000 from the armored car he was hired to guard is being held without bail in Utah after confessing, officials say.

An armored car guard suspected of fatally shooting his partner and stealing $300,000 was taken into custody Thursday in Utah. The Utah Highway Patrol stopped Thomas Wheelock on Interstate 15 near Centerville, just north of Salt Lake City. "It was a routine traffic stop for a registration plate violation," Highway Patrol spokesman Verdi White said.

A robbery suspect has been charged with murder in the fatal stabbing of a man who tried to stop an attack on a woman near Fisherman's Wharf. Robert White, 35, was charged Thursday in the death of Michael Stuckey, who was stabbed in the chest when he came to the aid of the woman. The robbery victim, Susan Sloan of San Francisco, said she was walking on Bay Street, carrying groceries home, when a man grabbed her from behind at Taylor Street.

Toronto Maple Leaf defenseman Darryl Shannon suffered a broken nose and bruised right eye after being robbed early Wednesday morning. According to a San Francisco police report, an intoxicated Shannon, whose team played at San Jose on Thursday, was beaten after he went searching for a group of people who stole his coat.

Three weekend carjackings have brought to 51 the number of cars stolen with the driver at the wheel since Sept. 17, when police started keeping carjacking statistics. The latest occurred Sunday afternoon when two people, one armed with a gun, ordered a driver out of a car at a stop sign. A motorist in the Castro district was carjacked early Sunday by a man with a knife, police said. In the third carjacking, a woman was forced from her car at a downtown intersection Friday night.

Was Holden Charles Hollom a hero who adroitly used his taxicab to chase and pin a fleeing mugger to a building wall? Or, as the mugger's lawyer later put it, was Hollom an overzealous "cowboy" who needlessly fractured the assailant's leg in the capture? Whatever the answer, a $24,595 civil jury award to the mugger last week sparked a burst of protests and raised questions about a legal system that seemed to have gone crazy by favoring the criminal over the good citizen.

A "good Samaritan" taxi driver who captured a fleeing mugger by pinning him against a wall with his cab has been ordered to pay $25,000 for breaking the crook's leg. A San Francisco Superior Court jury decided that cabbie Charles Hollom, 51, used excessive force when he pinned Ocie McClure to a wall. The jury awarded McClure $24,595. According to police reports, Hollom, who had driven a cab for 25 years, saw McClure robbing a Japanese tourist in May, 1989, and gave chase.

Police say a cab driver will be arrested in the shooting of a passenger he said was trying to rob him. Cabbie Robert Colt, 32, told officers as he dropped passenger Ekene Porter, 18, off at an address, Porter reached over from the rear seat and grabbed him in an apparent robbery attempt. Colt said he got loose, jumped from the cab and shot Porter, according to officers. Police said Porter would be arrested when he is released from San Francisco General Hospital.