Police work leads to arrest in bicycle theft
After a local resident helped authorities track down a bicycle thief, further police work led to the arrest of another man suspected of stealing bicycles.
The investigation launched on August 3, when the victim of a bike theft set up a sting operation after he noticed his stolen bike advertised on Craigslist. He arranged a meeting to purchase the bike and notified law enforcement.
Authorities observed as the victim gave $250 to the suspect, later identified as Michael Keith Eosefow, 25, and received his stolen bicycle in return, police said. Officers followed and arrested the suspect, who allegedly admitted to stealing and selling the bike.
After recovering the victim’s cash, police booked Eosefow into jail for possession of stolen property.
According to police records, that bicycle was stolen along with another bike from Brooks Institute, 27 E. Cota Street, on July 30 by two suspects, and the incident was reportedly caught on security footage.
Sgt. Lorenzo Duarte said further investigation led detectives to put out an arrest warrant for Anthony Alan Grosse, 22, for petty theft. On August 5, an officer on patrol spotted the suspect leaving a building on Cacique Street and took him into custody.
Detectives arrived at the scene and learned Grosse and Eosefow lived in the same building in the 1100 block of Cacique Street, Duarte said.
“Officers were able to look through a window and see additional bikes in a room that belonged to Eosefow,” he said.
After preparing a search warrant, detectives entered the building and discovered seven complete bicycles, two bikes missing their front tires, two bike frames, numerous bike parts and a pair of bolt cutters in the room, Duarte said.
In Grosse’s room, authorities also discovered an additional bicycle. Police booked Grosse into jail on suspicion of petty theft with priors and conspiracy, in addition to recommending conspiracy charges for Eosefow as well.
“Detectives are still continuing their investigation and attempting to find out whether any of those other bikes are stolen,” Duarte said.
Comment on this article
Always use a Bike Registry service in ADVANCE : 8/11/2009
Glad to see that things worked out well in this situation. Most of the time the story does not end as well, I had my Trek 5200 ripped off in early spring, still looking for it. The rest of my bikes have been registered, using one of the free public bike registry services off the net.
Joel Hayden
stolen bikes : 8/11/2009
Does anyone know if I call the police to see if my bike is one of those, mine was stolen 2 weeks ago.
Right on! : 8/11/2009
For many bike commuters (myself included), theft of a bicycle is equivalent to theft of a car. It dismantles you. I am so pleased to hear that SBPD is willing to take bicycle theft seriously and hope they can ramp up their efforts even more in this wonderful, bike-savvy community.
bikes : 8/11/2009
lock em up!
that simple
that simple? : 8/11/2009
bikes, I'm not sure if you mean to lock up the thieves or to lock up your bikes. Any bike lock can be compromised. I had a rather massive cable cut through to get my bike. Any anyone who thinks U-Locks are unbeatable is fooling themselves. Difficult, yes. Nothing is impossible. Let's not blame the victims here. @stolen bikes- did you file a police report at the time? That would make it easy. In any case, the police are who you should be asking, not us!
Rich Wilson
stolen bike : 8/11/2009
my bike was stolen from fig st. on wed. august 5th, opening day of fiesta. all black specalized rockhopper Kili Morgan, deffnorm@aol.com
bike theives should have their hands cut off
stolenbicycleregistry.com : 8/11/2009
If you've had your bike stolen, please consider listing it on www.stolenbicycleregistry.com - it is a free resource for listing, searching, and recovering stolen bikes. You never know, you may get lucky - we've had recoveries pop up years later, so it is worth a shot.
bhance
: 8/13/2009
Interesting headline.... the police didn't do a damn thing. The owner of the bike did all the work.
Give credit where credit is due.
Stolen Bikes : 8/24/2009
I have been a resident of Ventura for 7 years. I had my storage unit raided and mountain bike stolen on Kalorama St. Apparently there is a thief who steals mountain bikes and I would love nothing more than to hear that someone catches him. (I actually saw the man drive away at 3 am with my belongings in the back of his truck). It is good to hear that these bike thieves are being caught; because it has been 4 years since my bike was stolen and it still makes me mad to this day.
Miss. Anderson
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