10
Nov 11I caught a bicycle thief
I’ve had an eventful afternoon. I spotted, followed, and caught a bicycle thief today.
I live a couple doors down from Metro Bicycles, a local bike shop run by some great people; they sold me the bicycle I rode on RAGBRAI this year and helped me a lot in the process. They sell mostly Giant, Trek, and Raleigh, and I’m pretty familiar with the models they sell. So when I stepped out of the front door of my apartment and saw a man pushing a brand new carbon fiber Giant TCR, walking away from the shop, it seemed pretty likely that the bike came from Metro Bicycles.
The guy was pushing the bike because it didn’t have pedals on the cranks yet, and it had the price tags still dangling from the frame. In other words, it was in the condition that the bike would be displayed on the rack, not the condition it would be if you bought it and were taking it home. The frame was too small for a big guy like he was, and he looked pretty sketchy for a dude who would buy a $3,000+ carbon fiber road bike. Then, of course, there was the fact that he was half-walking, half-running, and ducked into a doorway to examine the bicycle.
Every bell going off in my head said that he had just stolen the bike from Metro, but another part of me was thinking “no way, since when do you see bicycles get stolen and paraded right down the street in front of you?” I decided to just walk behind him for a bit and see where he went.
He rounded the corner and went up to the delivery guys at Kool Blu, a takeout burger stand near my house. I didn’t go up to hear what they were saying, but he was showing the bike to them. At this point I’m thinking, “maybe he just bought it, and those are his buddies, so he’s showing off.” Whatever they talked about, he kept on walking with the bike, so I kept following him.
He kept jogging/walking fast with the bike, acting shifty, so I decided to call 911. I told them where I was, and described him, and where I thought he was headed. It was obvious that he wasn’t going to stay in one place for the cops to come find him. I decided to keep on tailing him.
When you see spies and detectives tailing someone on TV, it’s a pretty elaborate setup. Even my Hardy Boys books that I read as a kid had all kinds of rules about tailing people, like having a second person to help so they can pick up where you leave off, using store windows as mirrors, and other tricks. If this were a TV show, he’d be getting suspicious, hopping on city buses, getting in taxi cabs and out the other side or running down the subway platform, and I’d have to do all kinds of wacky moves to keep him in my sights.
As it turns out, you can pretty much walk directly behind someone for blocks and blocks and blocks, and they just won’t notice you. Who actually expects to be tailed in the real world? Well, maybe a guy who just stole a $3,000 bike ought to expect something, but he didn’t.
I called Metro Bicycles, and asked if they had just lost a bicycle. The guy on the phone shouted “oh, fuck!” and dropped the reciever. I couldn’t tell if that was a yes or a no.
I followed the bike thief out of Soho, across Houston and into Noho. He turned around and looked at me a couple of times, but nothing seemed to register with him, so he just kept walking, at a regular pace now. Eventually he came to Pinche Taqueria, where he stopped and talked to their delivery guys. I got as close as I could to take a photo of him, and ended up snapping pictures of the guy selling the bike to one of them, who took it inside. Somehow, he still didn’t realize that he was being followed, or he didn’t care.
I called Metro Bicycles again, and this time the employee I spoke to didn’t drop the phone, but confirmed that a bike had just been stolen. He said he would come and meet me, and could I keep the thief in my sights?
Surprisingly, this entire time I saw zero police. I kept walking right behind the thief. It was clear at this point that he wasn’t going to notice me no matter what I did. Not much later, the employee from Metro Bicycles, who I’d later find out was named Colin, rode up alongside me on a brown granny bike with a basket. I’m about 6’2″, but hardly a tough guy, and Colin was a short, skinny kid—we were not about to go tackle this guy or take him down. Colin kept riding his bicycle a little bit ahead, then turning back, keeping an eye on the thief as I followed from behind. Our camoflague was weak. We were not spotted.
Colin and I stayed with the thief as he continued on into the East Village, up Bowery, past St. Mark’s, and still no cops. Clearly, neither of us was sure what to do at this point. A police van finally drove by, on the other side of the road down 3rd Avenue, and I tried going into the street, waving my arms, and shouting “police!” Nope. The cops didn’t notice me, and neither did the thief. Some cars honked at me, and I felt silly, but that was the sum total of my actions.
Finally, at 10th Street, the thief helpfully stopped and went into a secondhand clothing store, right next to a bank. Colin stood watch outside the store, and I ran into the bank to find a cop. The officer came out quickly, I showed him the picture of the thief, and he grabbed him right away, handcuffing him in the store. Just like every episode of COPS, the perp (I’m using COPS talk now hell yeah) kept saying “why are you arresting me?” and “can you tell me what I did?”
I got a ride in an unmarked car to the taqueria where the bike was sold. On the drive over, we came within inches of hitting another car, and actually did hit a bicyclist with the car mirror. The bicyclist didn’t fall off or get hurt, so we left her swearing and making faces at us as we drove off.
Colin and I stood around at the taqueria for ages, waiting for the officers to talk to the employees and look for the bicycle. Eventually they came out with the bicycle and the guy who bought the bike. The price tag reading $3,049 was still in plain view on the frame, and the delivery guy who bought the bike was taken away in cuffs. I don’t know if they were arresting him for buying stolen goods, or just questioning him, and I didn’t ask.
With everything wrapped up, I walked the bicycle back to the shop with Colin. I wish I could tell twelve year old me about my New York bike thief adventure. Those Hardy Boys books really paid off.
November 10th, 2011 at 10:12 pm
Loved the story Jay! Thinking you should be a short story novelist!
Perp, heh.
November 12th, 2011 at 11:41 pm
Hardy Boys? More like Encylopedia Brown homey! Cool nonetheless.
November 13th, 2011 at 8:38 am
[...] alleged thief in police custody jayson elliot If you suspected that a stranger had just stolen a bicycle from a store, would you confront them? [...]
November 13th, 2011 at 1:23 pm
Good Job man!
November 13th, 2011 at 2:30 pm
Well done, man!
November 13th, 2011 at 2:47 pm
You. Are. The. Shit.
November 13th, 2011 at 9:04 pm
great job on catching the guy, and my palms are sweating from reading the story! well done!
November 13th, 2011 at 9:45 pm
*applauds*
November 13th, 2011 at 10:41 pm
Excellent job! I wonder how much he sold it to the delivery guy for! Hundred bucks or so for a $3000 bike you think?
It does make me wonder about those delivery guys too, as they always have their bike frames taped up. I assumed that’s so they don’t get scratched up… but who knows what kind of fancy-ass carbon tubes they got under there!
November 13th, 2011 at 11:22 pm
What an awesome story! Good for you.
November 14th, 2011 at 12:04 am
This is great; it reads very Jonathan Ames/ Bored to Death. Nice work.
November 14th, 2011 at 2:00 pm
[...] story about the return of a stolen bicycle, you’ll love this one: Gothamist points to a post by Jayson Elliot, who noticed a man suspiciously walking a $3,094 bicycle out of a Soho bike store. Mr. Elliot [...]
November 14th, 2011 at 9:35 pm
This is a interesting post by the way. I am going to go ahead and bookmark this article for my sister to read later on tomorrow. Keep up the excellent work.
November 14th, 2011 at 9:48 pm
“short story novelist” WTF?
November 15th, 2011 at 3:02 am
Bike shops give some customers a “pro deal”, others a “bro deal”. Hopefully you receive a “just saved us $3,000″ deal”.
November 15th, 2011 at 12:52 pm
I hope that delivery guy got spanked with some jail time for buying a stolen bike.
November 15th, 2011 at 5:32 pm
Hey, good job. And you’re a RAGBRAI’er too.
I’ll put a link to your story on the RAGBRAI forum.
good one.
November 15th, 2011 at 8:37 pm
Thanks, John! See you on the next RAGBRAI.
November 17th, 2011 at 5:57 am
Hope the prosecute the holy fuck right out of the thief, and the buyer of the stolen bike.
November 17th, 2011 at 12:11 pm
What’s up with all these delivery guys with stolen bikes? I know the deliver guy isn’t the one who initially stole the thing, but he still bought stolen property knowing full well that it was stolen.
I live in Harlem and most of the delivery guys are illegal immigrants. Everybody knows it and no one says a thing. Look, we’re not stupid. If you’re using a $3000 road bike as a delivery bike, we know it’s stolen (not to mention the serial numbers being ground off and covered with tape).
November 29th, 2011 at 6:46 pm
Did the cop commit a hit and run on the bicyclist? or did he stop and talk to the cyclist and realize they were ok and then left?
December 1st, 2011 at 7:30 am
Good for you! Catch more…