Just a few days ago, Michael Hackamack picked up his lost bag at the SFMTA Customer Service Center. Now, he's desperately trying to track down the driver so he can thank her in person. "About four seconds after I got off the bus, and it just started away. There was no catching it," he recalled.
Hackamack realized as soon as he stepped off the 27 last Thursday that he'd accidentally left his briefcase on the bus. "My laptop, my wallet, credit cards, checkbook, medications," he listed. And, his platinum ring and bracelet and the 14 carats of diamonds that decorate them. "And I 'd just gotten, a couple of weeks ago, a thank you letter from Mr. and Mrs. Obama for one of my paintings that now hangs at the White House. That was unreplaceable," he said.
Hackamack called the police and filed a report for his valuables, but resigned himself to the fact that he'd never see them again. Then just five days later, he got a call from Muni's lost and found. They had his bag with everything inside, even the jewelry. "I went 'Oh, amazing!' Such honesty these days," he told ABC7 News. "That driver deserves a reward and if I weren't broke, I'd give her cash," Hackamack said.
Transit agency spokseman Paul Rose confirms the lost-and-found case but said Muni is still working to determine exactly who that good Samaritan driver is. "It's not uncommon for an operator to go an extra mile to show an act of kindness. A lot of times, the perception is the other way, and for this type of story to come out for an operator like this, it's a good thing. And we would like to give this operator that credit," he said.
And as Hackamack awaits his hopeful reunion, other Muni riders like San Francisco resident Jill Brenner are given hope that his good fortune may someday turn into theirs. "It's really awesome to see that kind of community in San Francisco. I would hope that that would happen in my case as well," she said.
