A San Francisco woman was allegedly attacked and robbed for wearing Google Glass in a bar on Friday night. Sarah Slocum told local CBS affiliate KPIX that as she was demonstrating Google's device for another patron, two women angrily confronted her. Soon after, a man at the bar tore Glass off of her face,
though she later retrieved the $1,500 Explorer Edition unit. According to Slocum, video footage taken with Glass shows the incident and the perpetrator's face. Unfortunately her smartphone, purse, and wallet were also stolen during the ordeal, and those items haven't yet turned up. "I got verbally and physically assaulted and robbed because of some wanker Google Glass haters," she later wrote on Facebook. One of the assailant's friends accused Slocum (and presumably other Glass users) of "destroying the city," according to a San Francisco Chroniclereport.
Exactly what led up to the altercation is a bit unclear. KPIX5 spoke to numerous witnesses who were at Molotov's bar on Friday; they said Slocum was "very friendly" and that several people were genuinely interested in seeing Glass firsthand. But one man — who offered only his first name — seemed to imply that Slocum should have known better. "Brian" described Molotov's typical clientele as "not tech-oriented" and said the dive is "one of the more punk rock bars in the city." "It's not Google Glass country," he told reporter Joe Vazquez. Brian was quick to admit that no one had any right to victimize Slocum for the simple act of wearing Glass, but said "a level of tact in that type of establishment might have behooved her."
Another witness said that Slocum was "running around very excited" as closing time approached. "I think everybody was just upset that she would be recording outside of a bar this late with obviously embarrassing behavior going on around her, and just rather insulted that someone thinks it's OK to record them the entire time they're in public." Just last week, Google sought to get in front of the Glass etiquette debate with a list of best practices for using the device. Google says that Explorers shouldn't "wear it and expect to be ignored," but obviously Slocum got more than she bargained for in that respect.
Slocum said she has filed a report with local police, though apparently they're unaware of any incident. At least one employee on the Google Glass team has also reached out for more details. One thing's for sure: Slocum isn't being shy about publicizing the incident. She's retweeted several media requests for interviews and is routinely highlighting any and all coverage it receives on her Facebook page. San Francisco blog Mission Mission has also called her story into question.
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