Friday, February 22, 2008

DNA trail led cops to unlikely bike theft suspect

The Seattle Times has a fascinating story today about a guy who would test ride high-end bicycles and then never return. The guy managed to steal a lot of bikes this way. Read all about it here:

http://tinyurl.com/2oge7s

The big break in the case came from DNA the police extracted from the disposable coffee cup the suspect left behind at one of the bike shops.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Dang!
Now why didn't I think of that? I could have put on my green pyjamas, head up to SVB and trade an ofishul Dr Codfish ID card for one of those lovely Salsa Casseroles.

DrCodfish

nollij said...

Funny... the only shops that let me take bikes for test rides without making me hand over a CDL and/or a CC are shops where I have friends working there, or I'm friends with the owners. Every other one in Marin County requires I hand over some ID and some require plastic as well...

Anonymous said...

They won't have to worry about that guy any more.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2004198553_bos24m.html

C said...

1) How stupid of the shop. Seriously. I've worked in shops in SF and Seattle and never had someone steal a bike from me. Letting a customer leave on a test ride without some form of ID is just plain dumb. Any shop that does that deserves whatever happens to them.

2) Hardly a surprise. Just because someone is a doctor doesn't make them above such behavior. When I worked for REI I investigated and ultimately caught this knucklehead: http://www.montcopa.org/da/pressreleases/economic.htm
We also had lawyers, environmental activists, Microsoft executives, and LOTS of grad students hit us with bogus checks and stolen credit cards. Reality is stores in higher income neighborhoods had more problems than stores in lower income areas. Never forget that "con" is short for "confidence"!