Woman finds her stolen bike on Craigslist, then helps BART police sting the thief
Posted on Friday, March 14 at 3:19pm | By Henry K. Lee
A woman whose $900 bike got stolen from the MacArthur BART Station in Oakland took part in a police sting to get her wheels back, ending in the thiefs arrest, officials said Friday.
After her bike was snatched from the station over the weekend, the 44-year-old Oakland woman decided to take action. She found her bike listed for sale on Craigslist and notified BART police.
The woman, who didnt want to be identified, worked with the department to make arrangements to meet the purported seller and buy her own bike back. Officer Eric Poindexter gave her pointers as to how to talk to the suspect, remain calm and secretly give him a hand signal to let him know police could swoop in.
The suspect, whose name wasnt released, was arrested on suspicion of possession of stolen property, possession of drugs, possession of forged identification, a probation violation and an outstanding $25,000 warrant out of Reno. The bike was recovered.