Undercover police work and investigations have led to an increased number of arrests for bicycle thefts, an ASU Police official said Thursday.
Five arrests related to stolen bikes have been made over the past 90 days, according to police crime logs. But ASU Police spokesman Cmdr. Jim Hardina said many more suspected bike thieves have been arrested for outstanding warrants.
Around 6 p.m. Tuesday, an undercover police aide witnessed two men loitering near bike racks around campus, according to a police report.
When one of the men, 39-year-old Phoenix resident Antonio Escudero, noticed the police aide following him, he ran to a nearby business and disposed of a pair of bolt cutters and a cut cable lock, police reported.
After contacting Escudero outside the business, a background check on him confirmed an outstanding warrant and an arrest for trafficking stolen property on Aug. 24, according to a report.
Escudero was arrested and turned over to the Phoenix Police Department.
Hardina said Escudero already trespassed on the ASU campus after his arrest in August, but was warned for trespassing again after his arrest Tuesday by the police aide.
According to documents from the Arizona Supreme Court, Escudero has been arrested at least 10 times over the last decade.
Tuesday was Escudero’s fifth arrest for a theft-related crime, including an Aug. 24 arrest outside the Memorial Union on the Tempe campus for trafficking stolen property, according to court and police documents.
Escudero has also been arrested twice on suspicion of assault, had two charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor dismissed in 2008, and pleaded guilty to charges of permitting a child to drive and possessing a fictitious license in 2007, according to court documents.
Undercover police also contacted another man who was perusing bike racks on the Tempe campus an hour after Escudero was arrested, Hardina said.
The man was not arrested for stealing bicycles, but Hardina said the man was arrested for an outstanding warrant from Mesa and had been arrested on the Tempe campus for stealing bicycles before.
Undercover officers are working day and night to catch bike thieves, Hardina said, but attempting to decrease bike thefts has been difficult.
“We’ve been arresting a lot of bike thieves, but it doesn’t seem to impact the thefts that much,” he said. “When you arrest one, two take their place.”
Hardina said police are also investigating bike thefts on campus.
ASU Police received two separate reports last week of students who had seen their bicycles on Craigslist after they were stolen, he said.
Hardina said there is specific behavior consistent with bike thieves.
Many will ride a bike onto campus with a chain around their seat post, wearing a backpack full of tools, he said.
They then wander around until they find a bike they want to steal, cut the lock and place their own lock on the bicycle, Hardina said. The person will then leave, and come back later to unlock their own lock and steal the bicycle, so if questioned, the suspect would typically attempt to prove to police they were simply unlocking their own bicycle, he said.
To prove ownership of a bicycle, ASU Police recommend students register their bicycles through the police department.
Reach the reporter at mhendley@asu.edu
