By Linda Taaffe

Bank employee tackles gunman as he tries to get away in a taxi cab

A gunman’s plan to take the money and run from a San Francisco Bank went amiss June 20 when a Mountain View man tackled him as he was trying to make a getaway in a cab.

Resident Mark Feathers, the man who local media are calling a hero, held the alleged bank robber down at the intersection of Kearny, Geary and Market streets until police arrived at the scene.

Police arrested Steven Adams, 44, on robbery charges. He was charged in a San Francisco U.S. District Court last week for three bank robberies.

Police said Adams had allegedly run off with $1,085 from Sequoia National Bank on Post Street the day before his arrest.

He returned to the bank the next day, presented a teller with the same hold-up note, and walked out the door with $300.

Several bank employees recognized the man, Feathers said. The teller who was robbed, however, had just started working at the bank that morning. Adams was her first customer, Feathers said.

Feathers, who is senior business development officer at the bank, said he was working upstairs when an employee told him that the bank robber had returned.

Feathers and two other employees followed Adams down the street, staying a few feet behind him.

“I flipped out my cell phone with the intention to call the police and tell them where he was,” Feathers said.

The former Bank of Los Altos employee had no plans to tackle the robber, he said.

Feathers said Adams must have detected that he was being followed and began to walk erratically. He tried to jump on two different Muni buses, but the lines were too long and he couldn’t get on either one, Feathers said.

He then hailed a cab on Market Street. Feathers and his two co-workers held the cab door open and told the driver, “Don’t go. He just robbed a bank,” Feathers said.

The driver abandoned the cab in the middle of the street, Feathers said. Adams jumped out of the back seat and tried to flee.

When Feathers continued his pursuit, Adams told him he had a gun.

“I didn’t know he had a gun up until that point,” Feathers said.

“I thought (to myself), ‘Oh no. You’re into this now. You have to do something …’ “

What came next was pure reaction, he said.

Feathers rushed at Adams from behind, pinning Adams’ hands under his arms so he couldn’t reach for the gun and hurt anyone.

Adams overshadowed Feathers by about two inches and outweighed him by about 60 pounds, Feathers said.

Feathers’ two co-workers also grabbed Adams and helped immobilize him, Feathers said.

Feathers said he doesn’t know whether to call his actions heroic or foolish.

Feathers said he would do it all again, but only if someone’s life was in immediate danger.