Czech news crew covering APEC robbed outside San Francisco bookstore

A camera crew from the Czech Republic was robbed outside San Francisco’s City Lights Bookstore on Sunday. The crew was in town to cover the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit; San Francisco officials have ramped up efforts to clean up the city ahead of the event.

Two Czech journalists and several camera crew members were working at Columbus Avenue near Broadway when three masked assailants got out of their vehicle and pointed guns at the team. The San Francisco Chronicle identified the reporters as Milan Nosek and Bohumil Vostal, and Vostal recalled to the outlet the robbers stole equipment and footage valued at $18,000. The three robbers then fled in their vehicle before the police arrived.

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The San Francisco Police Department confirmed to the Washington Examiner the robbery happened shortly before 5 p.m. local time on Sunday, the SFPD Robbery Unit is leading the investigation, and the police are “working with various city partners to help assist the victims.”

Jeff Cretan, communications director for San Francisco Mayor London Breed, told the Washington Examiner that the district attorney is working aggressively to arrest and prosecute those who commit robberies and other crimes, citing suspects accused of a gunpoint robbery at a Noe Valley doughnut shop last month have been arrested and that the district attorney filed charges.

“We don’t want anyone in our city to be a victim of any crime, whether they are a visitor or a resident,” Cretan said in a statement. “Our Police Department is actively investigating this case, and we know that when an arrest is made, our District Attorney has taken a strong position of aggressively prosecuting crimes like these.”

“The Mayor did have an opportunity to meet with the two journalists yesterday at City Hall,” Cretan said. “She wanted to ensure that they were okay, to talk with them about their experience here, and to reiterate that SFPD is investigating this matter.”

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The summit draws in hundreds of international journalists and thousands of attendees to discuss economics, trade, infrastructure, and much more throughout the week. For the first time since 2011, the U.S. is hosting the APEC summit, and it’s the largest diplomatic event San Francisco has seen in 80 years.

Ahead of APEC, San Francisco officials worked to clean the streets in an effort to present a more positive image of the city than the one floating around of rampant homelessness and a pressing drug crisis.