Actually they were stolen. Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson was the victim of a thief this weekend in San Francisco. It happened Saturday at about 8 p.m. in Union Square.

Johnson, in town for a conference with represenatives from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, decided to use public transportation to travel to the city. “I thought it would be nice to take public transportation, so I rode AMTRAK from Sacramento to Richmond,” said Johnson.

At the Richmond BART station, Johnson said he noticed an elderly man struggling with his bags and asking for directions from a BART employee. “I told the gentleman I was headed the same way, so we could ride BART together,” the mayor said. Johnson found the man a seat on the train and the two later arrived at the Powell Street Bart station.

After walking for about four blocks, Johnson said he noticed his companion was tiring so he decided to grab a taxi. As he helped put the man’s bags into the trunk of the cab, Johnson put down his belongings and when he turned back around, his bag with a suit and some casual clothes was gone.

“The real crime was the vulnerability of it all,” Johnson wrote on his blog, “the idea that I could leave my bag on a crowded street, turn my back for 30 seconds and have my stuff stolen.” Johnson says his experience gives him something to talk to the City’s mayor about. “Next time I see San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom,” Johnson wrote, “I’ll tell him the story and give him my word nothing like that will happen to him in Sacramento.”

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