Bike Thieves Caught!
Just got back from the lakefront. Biked to Wilson and the path, ran 4 miles and was coming back and found an unmarked poice car, a patrol wagon, and six guys against the car. My front wheel was off but I was able to put it back on. Not quick release btw.
Turns out these guys had stolen a seat and tire from somebody's bike in front of Chava coffee (Leland/Wilson) right while the owner was in there She saw them, gave chase, called the cops, and the cops found the guys at the lakefront. They brought the owner by and kept her in the cop car to ID them.
Her wheel was on one of their beater bikes and they were carrying her seat. So what they do is smart..they bike around and find hiqh quality bikes and then swap out the wheels to use on their beater bikes until they sell the wheel. They were on mountain bikes so it looked strange with a fat mountain tire bike on the back and a road tire on the front (nice Shimano!). My guess they would have swapped the seats too if they had the time. Mine is a hybrid with a comfort seat which they may not have been interested in.
The cops searched them and found an Allen wrench and several small knives. They said they couldn't charge them for my wheel theft because they didn't see them steal my tire (the boys said my tire was just sitting there!). My bike frame on a kryptonite and the locked tire were untouched. I lock the back tire because I have enclosed gears that would be stolen if the rear tire was taken.
The cops kept saying that because they were juvies they will just get a slap on the wrist.
I have been running by the lake for 10 years....never a problem with my bike though I never leave it in the middle of a weekday. Now I see I'll need to lock my second tire everywhere. At my health club in Andersonville - LSAC - nobody locks both tires - but I'm going to start doing it.
I've always wondered who steals things like tires and seats. These guys were obviously organized...with an Allen wrench and on bikes. Shocked there were six of them. They were truly diverse...Hispanic, black, and South Asian from their looks. Looked about 17. None large or looked strong...would definitely have challenged them if I arrived while they were in the act.
The punk who had the Allen wrench and a knife was named Leonardo Chardo. They cuffed him and one other guy.
And no, I don't care if he is only 17; he is still a thief. I told them all they were thieves and that felt good. They seemed really humiliated up against the squad car..at least there for 25 minutes while I was there. Cops did a very nice job..thought didn't seem interested in seeing us going to court. I thanked them profusely.
So now even when I run or go out to the store I need to carry a second lock. What a pain!
Views: 1620
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by h' Zerocats on
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My guess is that it's mostly for personal use with some selling within circles of aquaintence (screw you spell check). However, someone I know came across a similar group by Sacramento/Lawrence and the North Branch one night a few years ago (mentioned here previously) and one of them babbled something about someone who works out of a Jimmy Johns who they supposedly sold bikes and parts to regularly.
Not the most useful info, but it's all I've got...
jolondon30 said:funny that you mention it but I wonder the same thing myself. First, I can tell you that at least these guys were smart enough to buy expensive brand name wheels/rims on my bike and the girl's. So they knew what they were doing.
No bike store will buy parts - used no less - from some guy off the street. And of all my friends who bike they buy exclusively from stores and would only buy wheels in sets. I can't imagine selling one used wheel/tire on ebay/craigslist will get you many calls.
So I am puzzled..seems a strange risk/reware strategy. Seats I'm guessing people steal for personal use. There must be some place where they sell wheels/tires......must be some fence who bundles them up in huge lots for sale. Actually I thought about asking them about it. They were all on beat up mountain bikes so had no use for wheel with thin rims.
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Permalink Reply by Albany Park Al on
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My teen son had two bikes stolen last year, one from NSCP (Bryn Mawr/Kedzie) and one from a friend's garage during a party (Ravenswood Hospital area), then when we replaced the second bike, his front wheel (bolt on) was stolen while he was in a pizza shop. I wonder if it was a bunch of teen knuckleheads like this, or maybe even these very guys, who did the latter two. The theft from the school involved a lock being cut, so was more 'professional.'
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Thank you Daniel G.
Hello jolondon. You sound like a much nicer person now that you're less angry. A keyboard is generally not your friend when you are angry. If you can bear it I'm going to give you some more advice. It will be the last time, cause I'm not coming back to this board. Above you talk about how you would challenge these kids if you had the chance. Thinking about revenge is pretty normal after you've been injured. You may think those thoughts quite a while after an incident. Adults in this society are not allowed to get physical with kids. Thinking about getting physical with kids is a bad idea. Publicly musing about what you might do to kids is extremely poor tactics. Even if you hit a kid while purely acting in self-defence, and you know in your mind you have done nothing wrong, someone else may have a conflicting story and you can be in deep legal trouble. If you want something from a kid you have to get it by being smarter and quicker than he is. If you can't think of anything better than physical force and the thief is a minor you might have to watch that bike walk.
A few years back when I lived in Rogers Park I got mugged one evening. Anyone reading this already has a preconception about the racial identity of the muggers. That's how we live. The police came. I was already bleeding and concussed. The cops wanted me to use words like "garbage" to describe my assailants. Sorry, even when concussed I will not play that game. So the cops started to hit me, thinking force might be a good motivator. By this time of the evening I was surrounded by half a dozen cops, all white, and a dozen of my neighbors. None of my neighbors were white. They came to the defence of a white man. They shamed the cops and they stopped the cops. With words. Words are powerful.
I am so white my German History professor once asked me to stand up in front of the class to display what an Aryan looks like. Then he asked me to state my origins. More diverse than you would guess looking at me. And I didn't even know all my 'diversity' until I was an adult. Many people don't. Many people never do. One of the few things your grandmother will lie about is exactly where you come from.
Telling me someone is South Asian or Hispanic tells me nothing about how they look. Hispanics come in all colors of the rainbow. So do South Asians. My Rogers Park neighbors endlessly surprised me when they told me where they'd come from. My presuppositions were always wrong. I don't care where you come from. I care what you do.
I did not call jolondon a racist. I didn't think he was. I think he made an unfortunate choice of words. That happens to anyone when they are angry. Gabe, I know what you are. You're plain about it. You've got a home here at the Chainlink. The hall monitors here approve of the way you speak. Cyclists against the world. I want no part of it.
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Permalink Reply by WillG on
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Wat?
John C. Wilson said:Thank you Daniel G.
Hello jolondon. You sound like a much nicer person now that you're less angry. A keyboard is generally not your friend when you are angry. If you can bear it I'm going to give you some more advice. It will be the last time, cause I'm not coming back to this board. Above you talk about how you would challenge these kids if you had the chance. Thinking about revenge is pretty normal after you've been injured. You may think those thoughts quite a while after an incident. Adults in this society are not allowed to get physical with kids. Thinking about getting physical with kids is a bad idea. Publicly musing about what you might do to kids is extremely poor tactics. Even if you hit a kid while purely acting in self-defence, and you know in your mind you have done nothing wrong, someone else may have a conflicting story and you can be in deep legal trouble. If you want something from a kid you have to get it by being smarter and quicker than he is. If you can't think of anything better than physical force and the thief is a minor you might have to watch that bike walk.
A few years back when I lived in Rogers Park I got mugged one evening. Anyone reading this already has a preconception about the racial identity of the muggers. That's how we live. The police came. I was already bleeding and concussed. The cops wanted me to use words like "garbage" to describe my assailants. Sorry, even when concussed I will not play that game. So the cops started to hit me, thinking force might be a good motivator. By this time of the evening I was surrounded by half a dozen cops, all white, and a dozen of my neighbors. None of my neighbors were white. They came to the defence of a white man. They shamed the cops and they stopped the cops. With words. Words are powerful.
I am so white my German History professor once asked me to stand up in front of the class to display what an Aryan looks like. Then he asked me to state my origins. More diverse than you would guess looking at me. And I didn't even know all my 'diversity' until I was an adult. Many people don't. Many people never do. One of the few things your grandmother will lie about is exactly where you come from.
Telling me someone is South Asian or Hispanic tells me nothing about how they look. Hispanics come in all colors of the rainbow. So do South Asians. My Rogers Park neighbors endlessly surprised me when they told me where they'd come from. My presuppositions were always wrong. I don't care where you come from. I care what you do.
I did not call jolondon a racist. I didn't think he was. I think he made an unfortunate choice of words. That happens to anyone when they are angry. Gabe, I know what you are. You're plain about it. You've got a home here at the Chainlink. The hall monitors here approve of the way you speak. Cyclists against the world. I want no part of it.
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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on
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John you need to give it a rest....I appreciate your sentiments but your reading comprehension rates "poor."
Nowhere do I mentioned taking physical revenge or attacking them. I said I wasn't scared if they tried to take revenge on me. If a 17 year old with a knife attacks me - and my only choice is to fight back - I'll let the courts rule on that. I can tell you the cops that stopped these guys - and had them with hands on their cars for at lesat 25 minutes over maybe $200 in bike parts - would not have been "favorably disposed" towards these guys.
Second, I manage South Asians; I have businesses in South Asia and Central America; and I have travelled extensively in both Latin America and South Asia so I know what many South Asians and Hispanics look like. Note that I said they "looked" like ethnicity x, y z. Never said every one of these groups looks is a bike thief nor do I pretend to know what every Hispanic looks like. As I wrote, I just found it interesting how racially diverse they were and commented as such.
So, however well intentioned, stop the preaching.
Carry on.
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keeping on topic...I like doing this for my bike seat: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-keep-your-bike-seat-from-get...
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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I know we are all cyclist and take theft personally, but honestly, bike theft isnt that big of a deal.
We live in a city, there are much larger problems to get worked up about.
Its mostly crackhead types, and teens doing it. Petty theft.
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Permalink Reply by Tony Adams on
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Jason,
How about you decide what you want to get worked up about and we'll decide what we want to get worked up about? Bike theft is a crime against the environment. There are people who just give up riding after they suffer the injustice of a bike theft. Some of us expend considerable effort getting others to join the party and experience the joy of riding. To see that work undermined by theft is discouraging.
Jason said:I know we are all cyclist and take theft personally, but honestly, bike theft isnt that big of a deal.
We live in a city, there are much larger problems to get worked up about.
Its mostly crackhead types, and teens doing it. Petty theft.
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If getting something stolen makes you stop riding, you have larger problems than getting a wheel stolen.
It's life, shit happens.
Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:Jason,
How about you decide what you want to get worked up about and we'll decide what we want to get worked up about? Bike theft is a crime against the environment. There are people who just give up riding after they suffer the injustice of a bike theft. Some of us expend considerable effort getting others to join the party and experience the joy of riding. To see that work undermined by theft is discouraging.
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Permalink Reply by yai danche on
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I think these are people who didn't enjoy riding that much in the first place. An acquaintance at work gave up for this very reason (2 bikes stolen), prefers to take the train. I can see how passively sitting through a commute is more appealing than riding through sometimes tense traffic. I admit when weather is bad, I do the same thing. Anyways theft hasn't made indoor bike parking a priority for my workplace despite the fact that we have the rooms and have a freight elevator. Apparently it's a hazard and would be too messy for housekeeping.
Jason said:If getting something stolen makes you stop riding, you have larger problems than getting a wheel stolen.
It's life, shit happens.
Tony Adams 6.6 mi said:Jason,
How about you decide what you want to get worked up about and we'll decide what we want to get worked up about? Bike theft is a crime against the environment. There are people who just give up riding after they suffer the injustice of a bike theft. Some of us expend considerable effort getting others to join the party and experience the joy of riding. To see that work undermined by theft is discouraging.
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Permalink Reply by Doug Haynes on
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The theft of my, or anyone else's, transportation is a big deal...
It is also not just crack heads and teens; pay attention to the threads on bike thiefs here and you will see there are a lot of organized adults stealing large numbers of bikes.
Jason said:I know we are all cyclist and take theft personally, but honestly, bike theft isnt that big of a deal.
We live in a city, there are much larger problems to get worked up about.
Its mostly crackhead types, and teens doing it. Petty theft.
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