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I caught a stolen moped on the bike tonight..

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
oh man, talk about job satisfaction!

so i'm cruising around one of the rougher "Public Housing Communities" (aka: projects) i'm responsible for and i see a kid trying to pop a wheelie on this POS moped and his fullface helmet is sitting up on top of his head like a hat. i'm enjoying the amusement of his antics when my partner hollers at me that he thinks the moped resembles a stolen one we had recently recieved a lookout for. the kid sees us, panics and takes off at full speed right past us. we give chase (on our mtn bikes) and catch up to him at the bottom of the hill (i think that moped tops out at about 25mph..if that). i came up on his right side, reached over w/ my left hand and grabbed his brake causing the bike to slow considerably. he tried to recover and take off again but i think he flooded it because it stalled out. my 2 partners and i had him surrounded on the bikes before he could even think about running. i heard about 20 different "oh sh!t!" comments from the peanut gallery standing in the parking lot of a nearby store.

turns out the moped was stolen (more like a crack deal gone bad) and the kid already had warrants out for similar crimes.

we were back out in that area later and we overheard numerous "hollas" about how the "biker boyz" caught a moped :D :rofl:
we keep a running talley in the office of how many successful chases we've had on the bikes (friendly competition w/ us and the Street Crimes drug unit). now i get to add the only moped on that list :clapping:
that kid will never live it down in his hood about letting us catch him :busted:

oh yeah, this is kind of what the moped looked like...it was such a beater, even the handlebars were loose.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Nice. Public humiliation can be a useful weapon.:clapping::beerjam::rockout:
yes it is. the layout of this area is very spectator friendly so whenever someone runs nearly everyone either sees it or hears about it immediately. if we catch him/her i always make it a point to walk them back via the same route they ran so that everyone sees what happens when you run from the po-po; even when there's a patrol car right where the runner is caught i'll still walk them all the way back to where they started from :busted:

i guess i have to treat it like a game to keep it from getting personal and most of my frequent flyers understand the game. it's like grown-up tag.
 

duck

Monkey
Apr 8, 2007
507
1
Cranbrook BC
"Bad boys bad boys, whatcha gonna do when teh Manimal comes for you."

Awsome job man, it's good to hear stories like that.
 

valve bouncer

Master Dildoist
Feb 11, 2002
7,843
114
Japan
That bloke would have to seriously consider whether he's gonna ever be the criminal mastermind he aspires to be after that little episode.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
That bloke would have to seriously consider whether he's gonna ever be the criminal mastermind he aspires to be after that little episode.
you'd be surprised at how many "masterminds" keep at it time after time. what is einsteins definition of insanity?...doing the same thing over and over expecting different results? ;)

i work in what i consider a "target rich environment" :twitch:
 

LordOpie

MOTHER HEN
Oct 17, 2002
21,022
3
Denver
If they ever do an episode of COPS about bike cops, post cuz that'd rock seeing idiots caught by self-powered bikes.
 

Smelly

Turbo Monkey
Jun 17, 2004
1,254
1
out yonder, round bout a hootinany
i hope i have the pleasure of humiliating someone that much when i become a cop!
oh great, just the kind of cop we need more of..:plthumbsdown:

There is a vast difference between the officers who are looking for someone to harrass and those who keep the morons at bay. Good cops don't go out looking to publically humiliate people. This kid on the moped brought this upon himself because cops do their job in public.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
What are you using for a cop bike? That P2?
nah, we've been using the Giant police bikes for a while now and the P2 was stolen this summer. they get the job done and i've modded mine enough that i can flick it around pretty well. i changed out the xc stem for a shorter planet x, took off the rack and kickstand, oversized h-bar,specialized rhythm tires, lock on grips and platform pedals. it would make a sweet trailbike with different tires and i've even given it some skatepark time to test it out :thumb:
the silent clutch hub is pretty sweet, we're pretty much silent which makes it easy to surprised the dealers on the corner :pirate2:
 

HAB

Chelsea from Seattle
Apr 28, 2007
11,580
2,005
Seattle
the silent clutch hub is pretty sweet, we're pretty much silent which makes it easy to surprised the dealers on the corner :pirate2:
Those are cool. Totally silent. I've got a wheel build around one somewhere.
 

kev211

Monkey
Jan 22, 2008
320
0
San Diago
that looks like my moms old moped. so cool that you got the guy. Oh, how i would be embarrased being caught by a cop on a bike when im cruising on a motorized vehicle. hahaha so cool! way to go.

on another note, what kind of bikes are you biker cops riding? Are you on the Fuji Nevada 1.5's that were made for the cops? We actually carry some of those in our shop (with Police written on them an everything)
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
on another note, what kind of bikes are you biker cops riding? Are you on the Fuji Nevada 1.5's that were made for the cops? We actually carry some of those in our shop (with Police written on them an everything)
We're riding GIANT for now...updated specs a few posts above. here's mine converted from full on cop bike with rack and kickstand to fun and flickable street machine. the sad thing is that i can manual this bike better than my haro thread one dj bike :disgust:
by the way...this bike has held up to abuse from me and that's a lot considering that all of our gear weighs right around 40lbs. i'm 220 in shorts/t-shirt so that's 260 on the bike w/ gunbelt and full camelback.




edit: as soon as i can get my hands on a 34T 4-bolt chainring i'll be ditching the big ring for a bash guard.
 

kev211

Monkey
Jan 22, 2008
320
0
San Diago
I love seeing taxpayer dollars hard at work! keep it up man. When i see cop bikes like that, it puts me more at ease knowing that maybe 2 percent of my money is going to worthwhile stuff. The other 98 percent i dont like to think about:disgust:
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
I love seeing taxpayer dollars hard at work! keep it up man. When i see cop bikes like that, it puts me more at ease knowing that maybe 2 percent of my money is going to worthwhile stuff. The other 98 percent i dont like to think about:disgust:
just fyi...the average taxpayer contribution to local law enforcement is about $.17

i used to keep a quarter in my pocket for those "i pay your salary" idiots. i'd politely hand the quarter to them and give them back their portion of my salary. then i got complained on for that and they said i had to stop. oh well, it was fun while it lasted and they still haven't said anything about me making kids riverdance in lieu of a ticket :D
 

kev211

Monkey
Jan 22, 2008
320
0
San Diago
oh thats rough haha. I almost wrote 20cents instead of 2percent. man, i would have been close. My grandpa was a cop, so i know what your talking about. i actually almost got a ticket the other day for not having plates on my car even though i got them in augest.

resaon why i didnt have them on...

Im christian, and the plates were something like 1lov666. and they werent personalized. needless to say, i wasnt too happy on the thought of putting the devils number on my car. explained it to the cop. he was pretty chill, and he didnt really care. he told me that he would try to find some of the flying wheel emblems for the guys at the shop to put on our headtubes. haha
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
awesome job.

when is "cops" going to put a helmet cam on you?
no thanks....only if there was no audio recording ;) i deal with a lot of gang members and the conversations are not usually what the general public would consider...umm...professional. "if you have to play in the mud you're going to get dirty." those guys just don't respect the "yes sir, no sir" lingo, you have to get a degree in gangsta if you want to get anywhere and be respected enough to gather information.
 

manimal

Ociffer Tackleberry
Feb 27, 2002
7,212
17
Blindly running into cactus
Update:

the kid from my original post in this thread got out of "Training Camp" last week (Juvenile prison work camp).
4 of us were out riding today and we were staying very busy with the numerous "regulars" out on the street corners taking advantage of a nice warm up in the weather. we're at the bottom of a hill that is a 4 way intersection. i look up and see a pocket bike flying down the hill and when the helmetless driver sees us, he quickly veers off to the left and cuts between 2 buildings through the grass.
we split up and come towards him from all directions, in case this is a stolen bike and the driver decides to run (because most people don't immediately run off the road to hid when they see the police). luckily, i find him waiting patiently for us in the grass and as i approach he says, "barber! it's been a long time!" i take a good look and realize that it's the kid i caught on the stolen moped last year. he tells me about his time at training camp while my partners run the VIN on the pocket bike to see if it's stolen (it turns out that he just stole it and an officer was out doing the report while we were with him but neither us or the other officer knew it)
so the pocket bike checks out clean and we warn him about having it on the street (not legal to ride on public streets). he mentions that his brakes don't work very well and we tell him to walk it home and keep it off the street.
that was the last time i'll ever deal with him...ever.

i got off at 6pm. my 2nd shift partner calls me at about 630 and says that the kid was riding it through a not-so-nice neighborhood. he came flying down a hill without a helmet, ran the stop sign and WHAM! nailed by a van. The van kept going but last i heard the officers on scene had located it.
my partner was one of the first on the scene and she said that he was bussed to a nearby trauma center but that he was pretty much DRT (Dead Right There). major head injury, bloody foam coming from his mouth and he was starting to do the death twitch when they loaded him on the truck. i haven't gotten the official word but i think they pronounced him dead at the hospital about an hour ago.

oh yeah, as i said before, at the time of the wreck the pocket bike was officially reported stolen. so this kid, who has about 8 prior motor vehicle theft charges, among numerous other things, finally had to pay the piper. i feel kind of bad about it, only because i don't feel bad about it. maybe i'm too calloused and cynical these days but my first thought when i heard the news was "Darwin award candidate." i think he was 16.

anyway, i remembered this thread and decided it was only proper to update the story with this tragic ending.
 
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