“I saw a guy putting one into the back of his truck, which looked odd — who just throws a nice bike into the back of a pickup?”
I usually think of summer as high season for bike theft; but maybe thieves are so desperate for extra cash this time of year they are looking to change that. From Thanksgiving Thursday (11/22) to this past Sunday (11/25), we had 15 bikes posted to the Stolen Bike Listings. On Sunday alone, there were seven bikes listed! And now I’ve just heard of a crazy bike theft attempt that happened in broad daylight on November 18th.
According to reader Jonathan R., who lives in Ladd’s Addition just south of SE Hawthorne Blvd around 20th, he and his neighbors saw a brazen bike theft attempt right before their very eyes. There was a foot chase, an attempted escape, and then, thankfully, an arrest.
Here’s how Jonathan remembers it:
“The owner [of the bikes] had come home from a ride, with two nice bikes on his rack (not locked, I don’t think). I saw a guy putting one into the back of his truck, which looked odd — who just throws a nice bike into the back of a pickup? My neighbor was also eyeballing it all (about 30 feet away from us), and started walking to the truck, when the perp threw a second bike in the back. He was definitely going fast, not like it was his bike.
Then out comes the owner, running toward the truck. He’s able to open the passenger door, but the truck peels out, throwing him off, and hitting his vehicle.
The truck speeds off toward Hawthorne and takes a right. We all run after it, but don’t have much hope. Except that the truck had to stop at that light at 20th, since the cop was parked there, as well. The cop directed the guy to pull over just off of 20th. Arrested a man and a woman. The guy apparently told the cops that he’d bought the bikes at Jantzen Beach.”
And he even snapped a photo of the truck:
I have yet to hear back from the Portland Police Bureau to confirm, but Jonathan provided me with Multnomah County case numbers and the names of both arrested parties. One of them was also charged for meth possession. They will go in front of a grand jury on December 3rd.
We’ve covered a lot of bike theft drama here on the Front Page over the years, but this is one of the best. While I’m glad the bikes were recovered, I’m amazed that there are people driving around and throwing unlocked bikes into the back of their truck. Moral of the story: Never leave your bike unlocked, even for a few minutes.
UPDATE, 11:49am: I haven’t heard back from PPB to confirm the arrests; but given the arrest date, the names, and the Multnomah County Court case numbers supplied by Jonathan R., it seems our two thieves are ***names and mug shots have been deleted***.
Thanks for reading.
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That’s one easy-to-remember (and douchey) license plate. Jet Man might experience a higher rate of deflated tires and keyed quarter panels in town.
“JET MAN” probably has to steal 2/bikes per hour to keep that gas guzzler in juice.
Thanks to all the people that helped stop these criminals from getting away!
Nice easy to remember license plate.
Dear god. I think we have yet to hear a single story about bike theft that doesn’t involve crystal meth. 🙁 Good on Jonathan R. & others for chasing this guy down!
“JET MAN” was also a stolen plate. You know they are up to no good when they’ve poorly spray painted the make and model of the truck in flat black to hide them… not like most americans cant pick out a Ford F150.
Keep your bikes inside, folks. Douchebags are looking for them.
if it’s a stolen plate/vehicle then I hope there’s no street justice against it…
It could even be a printed plate and the plastic covering protects the paper from the weather. This may be a stretch for a meth-head.
How do you know it was a stolen plate?
dude is stealing ppl transportation. glad they caugh these fokes or clowns!
Nice crew cab truck with one of those streamlined rooftop carriers. Displaying a custom lettered license plate belies the popular image of bike thieves being shabby, destitute street junkies. A thief with a rig like this could very possibly pass for a suburban yuppie with money to spend on expensive bikes.
A question I hope the police get the answers to, is where the bikes were going, had the theft been successful.
The absolute best part of this story is the JET MAN plate. Biiiig LOLs!
Jet Man will be back on the streets in a couple weeks, if that, and back to the exact same thing.
At least we have an idea of what to keep an eye out for.
The sheriff’s website (http://www.mcso.us/PAID/Default.aspx) lists him as already being released (no returns on a last name of “Smart”). He doesn’t even turn up as being released within the last seven days.
Pretty pathetic for someone who just committed multiple felonies. Probably out tweaking and scoping out bike-racks around town as we speak.
Wonderful.
Great news! I would love to hear some follow up on this story. I am intrigued to know what Jet Man looks like.
In the meantime, for the love of sweet jesus, lock up your bicycles! Do not think for one second that they are safe unlocked. Whether it is in front of the store, in front of your house,in your toolshed, on your car’s bikerack, even IN your house…
And always use a solid u-lock or two. None of this cable lock c*** any longer!
Don’t leave your bicycles unlocked when they are out of your reach! This means lock them even when you store them in your garage!
Cannot agree with this hard enough. More than half of the listings coming in lately are coming from shared apartment storage spaces, garages, side houses, back porches, inside of cars, etc. No matter where it is, lock it to something.
In this case, the important bit would be locking your bike TO something that’s hard to move. These crooks weren’t cutting cables, they were just picking up loose bikes, and even a U-locked bike could have been grabbed if it weren’t locked to something. A cable lock to the roof rack might have deterred them.
Also. It said two bikes were stolen from Ladd’s, but there are clearly at least three bikes shown in the back of the truck. I hope the third bicycle gets reunited with its owner!
just checked here: http://pdxmugshots.com/mug/steven-wayne-smart-1
there are 3 theft charges, 2 for “THEFT I (C Felony)” and 1 for “THEFT OF LOST PROP (C Misdemeanor)” which could be the third bike, or the license plate mentioned in an earlier comment…
Oh my lord, his plate is JET MAN and his name is SMART! It’s just too much!
what ever happened to the people in vancouver setting up the GPS bike sting operation? would love to read a story about them. http://metronews.ca/news/vancouver/39769/vancouver-vigilantes-battle-theft-with-gps-installed-bait-bikes/
does the portland police department have anything like this?
Ingo (the ‘To Catch a Bike Thief’ guy) actually came through Portland briefly this summer, and said then that it was still in the works. I’ll email him this thread and ask for an update.
Hi Kiel, Thanks for the interest, we’ve actually been approached by a couple of big TV production companies to develop our show into a broadcast television reality series, so we’ve been working on that. We’ve got a few more big shoots planned for January/February with a plan to push the rest of the web-series out some time mid-spring.
stay in touch and follow us on facebook (facebook.com/tocatchabikethief) or twitter (twitter.com/tocatchabikethf)
I’m not sure what is noteworthy about throwing the bikes into a pickup — have you ever tried to ride a road bike with Speedplays in normal shoes?
In SF thieves have been known to unbolt entire racks of bikes and putting it en masse into a truck.
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Awesome. That must have been a sinking feeling, finding a cop waiting at the stoplight. Heh heh. This story made my day!
just remember what was done in cowboy days when it came to horse thieves!…..hang “em high!……….very funny that the bike thief’s name is steven smart;guess he was not as smart as his name?PLEASE post their mugshots everywhere legally;incl bikeshops and stolen bike registries!
We got grand jury subpoenas for both of their cases, for December 3rd. It looks like the information filed by the DA was rejected by the judge as not having adequate probable cause for the woman — presumably just riding might not be enough to get to be an accomplice?
And the above mug shot is from earlier in the year, but OJIN shows that both she and the driver were booked together, and released.
And BTW, the “Jet Man” truck (with make and model spray painted in black) hasn’t been legally registered since 2003.
It’s a good thing automobile licensing works so well…
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Talking of bike theft 🙂 In St Johns/N pdx, This morning I had guy (pretty sure homeless ) walk all the way up (meaning he was quite bold) my back driveway (accessible via a semi private alley ) and grab my bicycle that was leaning against the house. I was out front painting (before work and before the rain:), and thought I heard something, looked around the house and saw him just going into the alley. I said ” just drop it there”. but I saw jumping on the bike and starting to ride it off. I was like ahhh, don’t make me chase you. Very quickly i headed for the garage, grabbed my wife’s bike and took off after him. If I had been a couple seconds late coming out of the alley with two directions to go, I wouldn’t have seen him just go out of sight a block away to the right. It was no problem chasing him down. He was on Lombard now, and attempting to cross traffic. I waited until was about 3 feet away and simply said “get off the bike, I need it to get to work”. Which he did. It helped, I think that I looked like a construction worker in my painty, crappy work clothes. He mumbled something about his bike getting stolen the night before. I was just like “yep ahh, huh, I know its hard, but I need my bicycle.” grasped the stem with my right hand and “rode” it home. Hmmf. Yep you feel a little violated. That was a close one. I guess I could have been meaner, but I would rather not have some guy/kid in the neighborhood that then has it out for us…
You showed some real restraint there. Good for you.
“I saw a guy putting one into the back of his truck, which looked odd — who just throws a nice bike into the back of a pickup?” Ummmm me I guess…I throw a Vanilla in the back of my 85 chevy half ton all the time…and it’s a real POS.
That’s an odd choice.
You expect kids not to pick up and eat candy they find on the sidewalk? Yeah right.
IF convicted, does he forfeit the truck as being used in commission of a crime ? (as do “Johns” who are nabbed picking up decoy hookers with their vehicles ?)
For a couple of bike thieves they sure drive a nice truck. Much nicer than my truck. Maybe they should sell that thing before stealing more (assuming the state hasn’t taken it).
I’d say to assume that they are the legal and rightful owners of that truck would be a huge stretch.
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***NOTE: This comment has been deleted because it shared personal contact information of the thieves. — Jonathan***
not cool. don’t post people’s addresses.
ok now, everybody, all together now, “tsk tsk tsk, tsk tsk tsk”
Don’t steal bikes bro.
come get my bike homies. You’d be lucky to walk away with at least this much: http://media2.wptv.com//photo/2012/11/16/Keith_Kirk_20121116045244_320_240.JPG
And you’d end up in jail.
Renters insurance and homeowners insurance can cover these things. Make sure you are covered and when the worst happens you get a new bike. I had a car stolen once and it turned out really really well for me. In fact that was the event that kicked my auto addiction.
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The girl in question is, in fact, only 21 or 22. And her recent arrests and mugshots are simply TRAGIC. She’s was raised in Eugene, from a good, loving, and large family, was a really super sweet, smart girl with a lot of friends growing up. And she was beautiful. In a MILLION YEARS, nobody who knew her growing up would have predicted this is what would become of her. College? Yes. Graduate student? Sure. Professional educator, lawyer, social worker? Perhaps. Criminal meth addict with ruined life? No way. Simply unimaginable. Her story is another true testament to what an EVIL drug meth is. It can get anyone.
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The truck has license plate holders made to cover up the area with stickers. That’s a law violation. People cover stickers to hide their expired plates.
I’ve often had cars show very rude behavior to myself and other cyclists even when there has been zero prior interaction. The provoking cars often have no plates or covered plates. I get the feeling a significant number of thugs prepare to obscure their plates and drive in ways to provoke cyclists and cars. I call in to non emergency whenever possible.
We could get lots of dangerous cars off the road by just having cops pull over every car with obscured plates. Impound the car until the owner has paid back a lot of money and volunteer time.
I think of this every time I hear about the cops beating up homeless or setting up a a sting to catch bikes doing no harm.
It might be a case of Washington License Plate frame vs Oregon frame. They have their tab stickers in different parts of the plate. I had to ditch my WA plate frame when I moved.
i KNOW THIS GUY!! he goes by CHOPPER SMART, if you guys have any other info on these ppl, or this case; especially the guy that steven stole the bikes from PLEASE CONTACT ME: melaniesmart1@yahoo.com
He is my sons father, and this is exactly what drugs do to you. messed up
Im so sorry for his behavior.
but plz do contact me, if anyone has any info on these ppl