4 Thieves Arrested. All in a day’s work at SCPD

Thursday was a particularly good day for catching thieves. Furthermore, two stolen bikes were returned to their rightful owners!

Incident #1
On Thursday 1/28/16 at 4:43 am, an alert neighbor who witnessed a suspect taking items from his neighbor’s garage quickly called 911. The neighbor gave an excellent description of the suspect wearing a blue colored “Santa Cruz” hoody, carrying backpack and box of items taken from the garage. Within minutes an SCPD Officer arrived to the 1100 block of East Cliff Drive and located the suspect Chayne Hampton, 31, from Santa Cruz.

Chayne Hampton, 31 years old from Santa Cruz
Chayne Hampton had the following items in his possession a speaker, box of knives and an assortment of collectible rocks which were consistent with items that were taken from the victim’s garage. Chayne Hampton was booked in jail for burglary.

Incident #2
On Thursday 1/28/16, at 6:27 am, a SCPD Officer quickly responded to a call about a vehicle burglary in the 200 block of Grant Street. The victim had chased down and restrained the suspect when police arrived. The incident unfolded as the victim was preparing to go to work. He had unlocked his truck that was parked in the back driveway of the residence. The victim went inside his home for a few minutes and came out to find the suspect, Dennis Ballard sitting in driver’s side of the truck and rummaging through the center console.

Dennis Ballard, 47 years old, transient Santa Cruz
Multiple items had been set outside of the truck that was previously inside the cab of the truck. The victim confronted the suspected burglar who started to run away. The victim was able to chase down and hold the suspect down until police arrived.

Items that were taken from the truck included Carhart rain jacket, a chainsaw and an envelope of cash.

SCPD Officers arrested Dennis Ballard, 47, transient from Santa Cruz for grand theft and a felony warrant.

Incident #3

SCPD is please to inform you the results in this case reunited two bikes to back to their rightful owners.

On Thursday 1/28/16, at 10: 45 am, an SCPD Officer doing a routine area check under the Soquel Bridge made contact with Robert Palmer. Mr. Palmer was in possession of two bicycles that did not appear to belong to him. 

The Officer checked the serial numbers on both bikes in the SCPD data base for stolen bikes. One bike was listed as stolen from a UCSC Police case. The other bike had been recently stolen from the Santa Cruz Teen Center. 

Robert Palmer, 27, transient from Santa Cruz was cited at the scene for being in the possession of stolen property. 

Incident #4
On Thursday 1/28/16, at 8:30 pm, SCPD’s Neighborhood Enforcement Team- NET put out a bait bicycle in front of CVS on Front St. After about 10 minutes, Patrick Falconer stole with bicycle. 

Patrick Falconer, 50 years old from Santa Cruz
He was located a short while later in the area of Ocean St. and Soquel Ave. Patrick Falconer, 50, from Santa Cruz claimed the bicycle belonged to his friend even though he said he saw a subject he did not know get off of the bicycle. Patrick Falconer was arrested for a felony theft since the bait bicycle has an appraised value of $3999.

Bike Theft: Realities and Risks

Bike theft is the 2nd most common form of larceny in Santa Cruz behind vehicle break-ins. Santa Cruz has a significant bike theft problem. Bikes are valuable, portable and easy to resell, making them attractive to thieves. 402 bicycles were reported stolen in the City of Santa Cruz in 2014. The first line of defense for our community is awareness and prevention to curb bicycle thieves.

Bicycles and bicycle parts including seats and wheels are in big demand and thieves are well equipped and well organized. With some precautions, you can lower the odds that you’ll be the victim of a stolen bike.

MAKE IT HARD TO STEAL - It has been found that in the vast majority of bicycle thefts, bicycles were either unlocked, improperly locked, or locked with inadequate locking devices such as lightweight cables or chains or low-quality U-lock devices.

Bike locking graphics from San Francisco Bicycle Coalition

LOCK YOUR BIKE - Lock your bike at all times, no matter how short of time you will be leaving it. Make sure the lock is attached to the frame of the bicycle and secured to a fixed, immovable object. Invest in a solid hardened steel U-bolt style lock. Cheap ones can be easily defeated. Use additional locks to secure wheels and other parts. Cable locks can be good secondary locks but should not be used as your primary lock.

Secure your bicycle in the garage the same way you would on the street. There is no locking method that is 100% foolproof. With time and tools, a thief can defeat your lock. Bikes left at racks overnight are particularly vulnerable. Bring your bicycle indoors or lock it in your garage whenever possible.

The Santa Cruz Police Department has launched an online bicycle license registration system. The registration is free and never expires!  To register your bicycle, simply complete the Bicycle Registration Form

The online registration was developed to make registration of bicycles easier for Santa Cruz residents and bike shops. Additionally, it will help locate owners of recovered bicycles and deter bicycle theft.

Registering discourages theft and aids in identification should your bike get stolen. Know your bike’s serial number.In addition, any personalization on your bike (stickers, markings, etc.) should be documented and kept in case your bike is stolen. This will make it easier for police to identify. All of this information should be stored and saved along with purchase receipts, manufacturer’s information, and a photograph of the bicycle.

SCPD will routinely discover stolen bikes in the course of our work. SCPD Officers will often look for the bike’s serial number to see if it has been reported stolen. - That is how a recovered stolen bike gets returned to it’s owner. Documenting your bike serial number and reporting the theft is important.

Reporting Theft -

WHAT TO DO IF YOUR BIKE IS STOLEN - If your bike is stolen, file a police report as soon as possible. Call 911 or the report can be filed online click here.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU WITNESS A BIKE THEFT - If you happen to witness a bike theft, either by force or stealth, dial 911 immediately and inform the dispatcher where you are and what is happening. Try to remember as much as you can about the suspect for police reports.

Reporting a theft helps give law enforcement, public officials and property owners the most accurate picture of where thefts occur in our community. This will aid in prevention and enforcement efforts.

Why You Should Register Your Bikes and Report Any Thefts Immediately

Sunday night, our patrol team stopped this guy at Jack in the Box on Ocean Street.  

 

This is Mr. Titonidae Wilden, 32 years-old and lists an address in Aptos. 

We found him riding a stolen bicycle that had been taken about two weeks prior.  After some follow up work, we knew he would be riding a stolen bicycle, we just had to find him. 

The bike is an $1,800 Surly Moonlander.

The victim did not report the theft until several days after the theft occurred.  Between the date of the theft and the date of the report, we learned our suspect had listed the bicycle on Craigslist for $1,500.  Not only that, but he came to the police department and registered the bike in his name!  He used that to add "legitimacy" to his Craigslist ad. 

Had the bike been previously registered, or the theft reported immediately, we would have arrested Mr. Wilden as he rode up to the self-service “please arrest me” window.  

Fortunately, all ended well with the bike recovered and returned to the victim and Mr. Wilden off to jail.

If you see Mr. Wilden in your neighborhood, his history shows he is a thief.  He also has a history that includes drug violations.  

Please register your bikes and report any thefts to help us in getting your property back to you and avoid scenes like this in the police department property room.

Talking Bike Theft on KSCO This Morning

This morning we dropped by the studios at KSCO Radio to talk bike theft with Rosemary Chalmers and the Good Morning Monterey Bay team. It is always a great time in the KSCO studios!   Here are a few key points from our discussion: 

Recovered Bikes 

SCPD recovers hundreds of bicycles each year.  This year alone we have recovered over 500 bicycles.  Unfortunately, many of those bikes are not reunited with their rightful owners because they were either not reported as stolen, or the owner did not have vital information about the bike.   

Our storage spaces at the police department are literally chalked full of recovered bicycles.  

The police department is required to store them for 90 days, after which we repurpose them through one of our distribution programs or we dispose of them.  We would rather reunite bikes with their rightful owners.  The important point here…..report your stolen bikes with the proper information.

Here are 3 key pieces of information we need to enter a bike as stolen into the statewide database

1. Brand
2. # of speeds 
3. Serial number of “Owner Applied Number” (a unique number you engrave)

We are working on a program to catalog the stored bikes with photos descriptions and serial numbers as a community reference and post them on our flicker account in hopes of reuniting the bikes with their owners.  This list will become available via our Website and smartphone app.  This will be coming in the months ahead.

Bike Chop Shops 

Bicycle theft in our community runs a broad spectrum; from kids taking a bike to organized theft rings and parts warehouses.  Recently we have seen thieves from out of the area come in with pickup trucks and teams equipped with bolt cutters.  It doesn’t take long for them to wipe out a bike rack full of bikes, throw them in the waiting truck and drive the bikes to the central valley.  

Two months ago, a group such as this was caught because someone phoned in the suspicious activity.  This gave us the clues needed to locate the truck full of stolen bikes, arrest the suspects and return the bikes back to their owners.

Last month we broke up a bike theft ring operating out of a house where the thieves were taking advantage of an elderly man and using his house as their base of operation.  

We regularly encounter chops shops in remote encampments.  Oftentimes the bicycles found are not reported as stolen.  This leaves us very few options to legally seize these bikes and everyone frustrated.

Catching the Thieves

As you can see, we seize hundreds of bikes each year, mostly from individuals we stop and investigate.  In fact, our own Deputy Chief Steve Clark recently stopped and arrested a bike thief while filming a predictive policing segment for German TV.
 

http://santacruzpolice.blogspot.com/2013/07/santa-cruz-police-use-of-predpol.html 

This only works when the bike has been reported as stolen. 

We also run bike stings using bait bikes, and yes we have a tracker.  We run longer-term investigations to get to the source of organized bike theft rings, as well as the amateurs using Craigslist and eBay.

 

Prevention 

Many bikes are taken when they are left unsecured. 

Lock your bike with a good quality lock that cannot be defeated by bolt cutters. 

• Report Suspicious Activity
• Keep a record of your bike brand, # of speeds, and serial number
• Make a report if your bike is stolen.  Include a photo, we will distribute that to our patrol staff to have them look for it.  You can even submit the report online via our Website.