Thanks to the freakn’ awesome detectives at Precinct 77, we were able to recover these two bikes. It went down like this:
A customer called in and told us he thinks he sees two of our stolen bikes on Craigslist (by the way dude, we owe you a beer). We get on Craigslist, and sure enough, there they are. Two pictures, matching the bikes exactly, for sale for $700. The ad also had pictures of our locks, light, and tubes.
I couldn’t believe my eyes.
Dude also was kind enough to give his cell phone and name in the ad. Yeah… you read that right.
So what do I do? I text him. Tell him I’m interested. He text’s me back with his address and tells me to come by. Yeah… you read that right.
I called the detectives and told him about the ad and the conversation I’d been having. After a little back and forth, they decided to set up a ‘meeting’ with him. And by meeting I mean a bust… a sting… a knock some doors down your fucking arrested ‘meeting’.
This is where it gets kooky: I become point man. There was some other goings ons in the area, so they were short officers. They could only get 2 detectives, two arresting officers, one plain clothes officer, and… well… me.
The plan was to have me knock on the door, stick my foot in when it opened, and have the officers rush in.
It didn’t really work out like that.
We showed up and there was a bike on the porch. Two seconds later, dude rolls up on the other bike saying how he got hungry waiting for us so he had to grab some food.
Shit… how were we going to get in?
So I’m checking over the bikes, saying how awesome they are… blah blah blah… and I ask if he has any lights for the bike. He says yes and opens the door telling us he’ll be right back.
We had him. My foot goes in the door and the cops fly in.
WAAA BAAM.
Things are a bit crazy for a bit… there’s someone else in the house… cops are doing their thing… old dude is on the porch not moving a muscle… everyone is in cuffs.
Unfortunately, he was not the thief we were after. The house didn’t have the rest of the stolen goods, and according to his pre-arrest ramble (which is usually 75% B.S.), he bought these bikes from someone else and was flipping them.
So we were able to recover the bikes and some stolen goods. Dude was also arrested and charged with criminal possession of stolen property (a felony, since everything was worth more than $1000).
All in all, not a bad way to break my police sting cherry.
There are some more details and some more embellishing to be told, for sure. But only for in shop entertainment.
Thanks again to everyone at the 77, the customer that called in the ad, and the customers who were rooting for us.
Stay vigilant, my friends. Let’s finish finding the rest of these bikes. WOO!
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