Volunteers walk the streets on International Boulevard in Oakland, Dec. 5, to highlight public safety.
Mayor Jean Quan’s difficulties with personal
transportation continued Friday night.

OAKLAND | Oakland Councilmember Noel Gallo couldn’t help cracking wise.

During a neighborhood safety walk he led last Friday evening on International Boulevard–also attended by Mayor Jean Quan–to highlight and deter criminal activity in his district, the out-going mayor mistook a car that pulled up beside the group for her own and got in.

Many in the large group walking International Boulevard watched quizzically as Quan approached the beaten down Toyota Corolla with a cracked windshield and hood badly oxidized by the weather and hopped in.

The driver and two passengers seated in the back seemed equally perplexed as to why a stranger was sitting in their vehicle. In fact, it was not readily apparent to Quan that she was in the wrong car for between 45 seconds and a minute before exiting.

When it became clear to onlookers that Quan had indeed entered the wrong vehicle, the group roared with laughter. One person joked, “There’s goes another missed YouTube moment.”

Quan, though, seemed visibly embarrassed as she returned to the sidewalk and walked away with the correct driver in the opposite direction, but not before Gallo loudly blurted out within feet of the mayor and her husband, “Ahhhhhhhh! She got in the car like she was hustling!”

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