Within minutes of a 12-year-old boy reporting his bicycle stolen by a man he believes followed him to a business on the Hill, Grosse Pointe Farms police tracked down the thief and returned the bike to the resident.
Grosse Pointe Farms police tracked down a stolen bicycle within minutes of it being reported June 30 and arrested the 19-year-old man found riding it on Kerby Road near Chalfonte.
Bicycle thefts are rather common in the Pointes, especially in the summer, and often the bikes are not recovered. All of the departments do recover bicycles, but they are not the same ones as those stolen and many go unclaimed and/or were never registered with the city.
Representatives from the public safety departments of the Grosse Pointes told Patch last summer many of the bicycles they do recover are "drop" bicycles, defining the terminology as being a bicycle used as the one to ditch should a person come upon a better bicycle they can steal.
In this case, a 12-year-old resident reported that he saw a man riding a skateboard near Richard Elementary School and then noticed that the man followed him to Rite Aid on the Hill, according to a report.
The boy said he took his bicycle into the entryway of Rite Aid and then went inside, only to see the man on the skateboard enter and steal his bicycle.
Meanwhile, responding officers spotted the 19-year-old Detroit man riding the bicycle they believed to be the same one stolen from the boy near Kerby Road and Chalfonte. He was carrying a skateboard, according to a report.
The officers asked the man where he was going, to which he responded he was heading to his own house in Detroit. During their conversation, officers confirmed that the bicycle he was riding was indeed the one stolen from the 12-year-old.
Officers arrested the teenager and then returned the bicycle to the 12-year-old within about an hour of it being stolen.
Bicycle thefts are often what police classify as a crime of opportunity, meaning if a bicycle is left unlocked or without supervision, it may become the target of a thief who can easily get away with it quickly. This includes not only bicycles that are in public places but also those left sitting in garages where the door is left open.
Each of the Grosse Pointe Public Safety Departments offer bicycle registration—something that can help police identify the owner and contact information.
For questions on the police blotter, email sara.martin@patch.com.
