Google Glass wearer reportedly 'robbed and assaulted' in San Francisco bar by 'haters'

A PR worker has reported that they were verbally abused and robbed for recording patrons of the bar with the wearable technology

Sara Slocum says she was showing people how the wearable technology works when two girls started making disparaging comments about Glass (Getty)

An American social media specialist has reported being attacked and robbed for wearing Google Glass in a bar last Friday.

Sara Slocum says she was showing people how the wearable technology works when two girls at the Molotov’s bar in San Francisco started making disparaging comments about Glass.

Slocum told a local TV station, “We were there maybe about 15 minutes and two girls that were there, they started showing a lot of animosity towards me because I was wearing Google Glass and at that point I turned on the video on glass, I started recording them.”

Footage of the incident on YouTube shows a woman telling Slocum that she is “killing the city”, a remark that suggests the negative reaction towards Glass is part of a larger backlash in the American city against young, well-paid technology workers who have been accused of driving out local residents by raising rents.

The video apparently shows a man reaching to snatch the glasses from Slocum’s face, with Slocum writing on Facebook later that he then “ran out with them then and when I ran out after him his *bleeeeeeep* friends stole my purse, cellphone wallet [sic] and everything.. “

Reactions to the incident have been mixed, with many in the tech community voicing their support for Slocum while others have criticized her for acting inconsiderately towards the bar’s patrons.

“You know, the crowd at Molotov’s is not a tech-oriented crowd for the most part,” one witness told local news station KPIX 5. “It’s probably one of the more punk rock bars in the city. So you know, it’s not really Google Glass country.”

Another patron of the bar that night said "I think everyone was just upset that she would be recording outside of a bar this later with obviously embarrassing behaviour going on around her. And, just rather insulted that someone thinks it’s okay to record them the entire time they’re in public.” "

Users on Facebook and Twitter have also pointed Slocum in the direction of Google’s recently released ‘Do’s and Don’t’s’ for wearing Glass. This includes the advice that "The Glass camera function is no different from a cell phone so behave as you would with your phone and ask permission before taking photos or videos of others."

Slocum actually tweeted a link to the same guide the day before the incident and later defended herself on Facebook saying she “was not recording anything until one of the girls turned around and flicked me off and started calling me names”.

Slocum says she was able to run after one her attackers and snatch back the headset that contained the video footage but that her money and phone were still missing. Slocum says that she has filed a report with police, although local news site SFGate have written that officials “were not aware of the incident.”