A San Mateo man behind a popular running club says he was robbed at gunpoint in the East Bay last week.
Jacob Zlobinsky, who runs the Bay Area Run Club, said he started the free run club five months ago to help strangers stay connected through running.
“Twelve people came, 50 people came, 100 people came and then, 700 to 800 came a couple of weekends in a row,” he said.
But now, Zlobinsky said he’s the one in need of help. He told NBC Bay Area that he was with his brother at Oakland’s Joaquin Miller Park in the morning hours of Oct. 17. to film a promotional video for a 5K they have on Saturday.
“I had all my cameras out my drone stuff my little behind the scenes camera,” he said. “Two guys pull up on us and one had a gun pointed at me basically saying, 'I’m going to take all your stuff.' I’m not gonna chase guys with guns because that’s not smart I don’t wanna die."
Zlobinsky called Oakland police’s non-emergency line shortly after that. But he said that he waited about three hours.
“It was an automated response. Someone will be there or our lines are busy,” he said.
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Zlobinsky finally filed a report in-person the following morning.
Oakland police said it’s investigating the case. But they did not respond to NBC Bay Area’s question about Zlobinsky’s hours-long wait time. Zlobinsky said he has to recoup the taken equipment he estimates is worth more than $30,000. Zlobinsky has set up a GoFundMe page for financial assistance.
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