A Burlingame man was captured on camera sprinting down Lorton Avenue and tackling a person police were chasing after a reported theft, taking him down onto the sidewalk in a struggle that unfolded around 12:45 p.m. on Wednesday. The footage shows the unidentified bystander closing the gap on the fleeing man before wrestling him to the ground, just blocks from where the chase began.
According to NBC Bay Area, the episode started after employees at a lululemon store reported that two people had come inside, grabbed merchandise and run off. Police received the report of a theft on Burlingame Avenue that same day, and the ensuing chase ended just a few blocks away, the station reports.
Camera footage reviewed by the outlet showed the man running full speed down Lorton Avenue before the bystander — who was not one of the responding officers — joined the chase and brought him down. The two wrestled on the sidewalk before the pursuit came to an end, per the same account. The person who intervened asked not to be identified, citing fear of retaliation.
What We Still Don't Know
Plenty of basic details remain unconfirmed. The suspect's identity, age, and whether he now faces charges have not been verified, nor has it been established exactly how many people police were pursuing in total. It's also unclear whether anyone was hurt during the tackle and the scuffle that followed on the sidewalk, and no video link, police incident number, or full police statement has been made public for this specific case.
The precise store address and the value of any merchandise involved in Wednesday's incident have not been independently confirmed either, despite the reported connection to a lululemon location. The bystander's name, job, and any relationship to the people involved in the chase also remain unknown.
A Broader Pattern of Retail Theft in Burlingame
This isn't the first time a Burlingame retailer has been targeted this year. In June, police said about $10,000 worth of clothing was stolen from a yoga store in downtown Burlingame, according to KRON4. In that case, the suspects reportedly abandoned a black Range Rover on California Avenue and fled on foot, with San Mateo police assisting in the investigation.
Lululemon stores in the area have also been hit before. In a separate case detailed by KRON4, police in Palo Alto arrested four people suspected of organized retail theft and recovered roughly 100 pairs of leggings valued at about $12,000. Additional bags in that case reportedly held 300 clothing items worth around $38,000 total, with some of the merchandise allegedly stolen earlier the same day from lululemon stores in Burlingame and San Mateo.
A similar pattern played out in San Mateo back in June 2024, when four people were arrested following a pursuit tied to the theft of nearly $10,000 in lululemon clothing from the Hillsdale Shopping Center, CBS News San Francisco reported at the time. Officers in that case halted their pursuit of a suspect vehicle out of safety concerns for other drivers and pedestrians before eventually locating all four suspects along with the stolen goods. None of these earlier incidents has been confirmed as connected to Wednesday's chase on Lorton Avenue.
Legal Gray Area for Bystanders Who Step In
When a private citizen physically intervenes in a police chase, California law offers some context, though it doesn't resolve every question in this case. Penal Code section 837, available through the California Legislative Information website, states that a private person may arrest another for a public offense committed or attempted in that person's presence. Whether that provision directly applies to the Burlingame bystander's actions has not been established.
State officials have separately pointed to a statewide decline in crime. A September release from the Governor of California states that every major statewide crime category declined in 2025. That broader statistic offers context but does not speak directly to what happened on Burlingame Avenue this week.
