{"id":184621,"date":"2026-02-19T14:21:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184621\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T14:21:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T14:21:25","slug":"the-curse-of-the-oakland-mayors-suv","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/184621\/","title":{"rendered":"The Curse of the Oakland Mayor’s SUV"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo IllustrationVol. VI, No. 1,202<\/p>\n

\u2014The case file opens with a familiar suspect: the Ford Expedition stolen this week is the very same SUV former Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao bought under intense scrutiny in early 2024.<\/p>\n

Back then, as wildfires piled up and pressures mounted during Thao\u2019s administration, another unwelcome twist emerged\u2014reports that the City of Oakland had failed to pay for the mayor\u2019s city-issued vehicle. It was one more clue in a string of civic headaches.<\/p>\n

The SUV\u2019s troubles didn\u2019t stop there. While assigned to Thao, it was broken into as she attended the premiere of a documentary by Stephen Curry\u2014a night out that ended with shattered glass rather than applause.<\/p>\n

When Councilmember Kevin Jenkins stepped in as acting mayor in early 2025, the same Expedition reportedly suffered yet another break-in. Different mayor, same mystery.<\/p>\n

And this wasn\u2019t the first time a mayoral SUV seemed cursed. <\/p>\n

Former Oakland Mayor Jean Quan, who served from 2011 to 2014, had her own run-ins with fate when her city-issued Lexus SUV was vandalized, its windows smashed.<\/p>\n

The plot thickened months later with a far more dramatic episode: Quan crashed into another motorist at a West Oakland intersection. The incident became the talk of the town, fueled by allegations that she was on her cellphone at the time.<\/p>\n

One year later, the final chapter\u2014at least legally\u2014arrived when the city settled the motorist\u2019s lawsuit for $15,000. The vehicles changed, the mayors changed, but the mystery of Oakland\u2019s mayoral SUVs rolls on.<\/p>\n

Refer a friend<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014More inside:<\/p>\n

CITY NEWS: Theft of Mayor Barbara Lee\u2019s car raises serious concerns about Oakland\u2019s embattled security services vendor.<\/p>\n

Fremont police chief hire helped trigger debate for becoming a charter city.<\/p>\n

San Leandro councilmember wants council to erase his censure and issue him a formal apology.<\/p>\n

The Aussies are coming to Alameda this summer.<\/p>\n

ELECTION 2026: Recent CA guv polls, attack ad, shows Swalwell gaining momentum.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo IllustrationVol. VI, No. 1,202 \u2014The case file opens with a familiar suspect: the Ford Expedition stolen this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184622,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":{"0":"post-184621","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-oakland","9":"tag-oakland-headlines","10":"tag-oakland-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184621"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184621\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}