SF man warns of possible drugging scam

A gay San Francisco man is warning others of a possible new drugging scam. He told the Bay Area Reporter that he believes he was drugged during a night out in the Castro neighborhood, allegedly leading to thousands of dollars being taken out of his bank account.

“I don’t remember everything,” Nick Marley, 38, said in a phone interview about the night of June 6-7. “I was at the Mix bar with my friend, and he left, and at some point, I met up with two women and was led to their car.”

“They gave me powder and said it was cocaine,” Marley said. “Obviously, it wasn’t. I blacked out.” (Cocaine acts as a stimulant.)

After he took the powder, Marley’s memory became hazy. He recalled the two women stopping to pick up a third man, who they said was gay.

“They said, ‘He’s gay, you’ll like him. You can do whatever,’” Marley recalled.

Marley further remembers being taken to a San Pablo casino, where he was visibly intoxicated and kicked out. From his wallet, he saw his bank cards were not present, and so he checked his bank account via his phone, which showed that he’d lost between $6,000-$7,000. His ID was still in the wallet. Marley said after he was booted from the casino, he took BART home from the Richmond station. 

The San Pablo Lytton Casino didn’t return a request for comment.

Police report made
“I reported it to San Pablo police,” Marley recalled.

There was no toxicology report done, however, and Marley said that the officer he spoke with was not thorough. Several days later, when he tried to add that he’d snorted something that he believes inhibited his faculties, the officer he spoke with “didn’t want to add that I believed I was drugged,” he said.

The B.A.R. reached out to San Pablo police. Peggy Chou, police support services manager, related in a phone interview that, “the reporting party told officers he went to the casino with known acquaintances after ingesting narcotics.” The B.A.R. told Chou that Marley wanted to amend his report, and Chou said San Pablo police would be in touch.

The B.A.R. then double-checked with Marley, who confirmed he did not know the two women beforehand. Later, he stated San Pablo police followed up with him.

“I talked to a different officer,” Marley said. “He was super nice and more thorough."

Chou told the B.A.R. after that discussion, “It appears the evening of June 6 or early morning of June 7, we had a victim report that he was at a bar in San Francisco, outside of our jurisdiction, where he had an interaction with two female, and one male, adults. He believes they drugged him during the night on which he knowingly injected narcotics. At some point, the two adult female suspects, along with the one adult male suspect, accessed the victim’s financial information and the victim reported being driven to the San Pablo casino from San Francisco, and then, based on the report, the suspects left the victim behind at the casino.”

Chou related that the San Francisco Police Department was now the lead investigative agency, as the alleged crime started in San Francisco. She did not know the SFPD case number. 

Reached for comment, SFPD Public Information Officer Robert Rueca stated, “We are aware of San Pablo Police sending information regarding this incident, which we are not releasing details at this time.”

Asked if SFPD has gotten reports of similar incidents recently, Rueca stated, “At this time, we do not have any recent statistics on these types of incidents occurring.” 

Chou also reported, “We have not had any recent reports of a similar nature, but will continue to investigate and collaborate with SFPD for any follow-up regarding this case.”

The incident left Marley shaken up, though he is thankful he “got most of” his money back after speaking with his bank, he said.

“It’s clear they were targeting gay men in the city,” he added of the women.

Safety first
As the B.A.R. previously reported, the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence, a drag nun philanthropic group, earlier this year unveiled a public safety campaign designed to help people navigate hookups safely – whether they meet at a bar, a party, cruising, or on dating apps like Grindr.

The Sisters’ campaign, “Safety First, Sexy Second,” is a three-step plan. First, buddy up: Choose a trusted friend to be your safety check-in; send screenshots of who you’re meeting and share your location. Second, hookup: Be your sexy self and have fun. Finally, follow-up: Set a time to check in and let your buddy know that you’re safe or if you need help.

It’s unclear what alleged drug Marley was given. After doing research on the effects of various drugs – Marley said he ruled out Gamma-hydroxybutyric acid, or GHB, a popular club drug – he believes he may have been given scopolamine, a drug sometimes used before surgeries, the effects of which last about eight hours. Also called Devil’s Breath, scopolamine is rarely used recreationally but has reportedly been used in kidnappings and sexual assaults.

Sister Shalita Corndog is among those working on the Sisters’ safety campaign. A psychiatric health nurse practitioner with board certification, Corndog said that scopolamine would be an unlikely culprit, unless it was in a dose large enough to be injected.

“To know what was in the person’s system at that time is nearly impossible, unless a forensic screening was done fairly immediately,” Corndog said in a phone interview. 

Corndog said, at risk of being too speculative, phenylcyclohexyl piperidine, also known as angel dust, was a more likely culprit.

“There’s so many ancillary drugs people are taking as well,” including alcohol, Corndog said, stressing that, “victims of these crimes can’t be shamed, and often are blamed.”

“The purpose of our campaign is to try to minimize that,” Corndog continued. “Our community is known to enhance their experiences with a variety of substances and people shouldn’t feel ashamed of that – and there should be that one person who knows what they’re up to.

“The word is out that a group of people are vulnerable and can be exploited. When we focus too much on determining which drug it was, we lose the focus that this person was targeted in a violent way,” Corndog concluded.

Asked for additional comments, Marley said, “My memory is very spotty and I seem to have been very willing to do whatever they want. It could’ve been anything. [GHB] could’ve done that. I didn’t remember getting drugged till a week later. It’s almost a perfect crime because I don’t have proof of that.” 

SCOPE, a project of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, offers free, anonymous, point-of-care drug testing, with no appointments needed. Analysis takes 10-15 minutes per sample, according to the foundation’s website. There are sites in South of Market, the Bayview, and the Haight. More information is available online at https://www.sfaf.org/services/drug-checking-scope/ .