Baltimore is a blue-collar, drug and shooting kind of town. So I'll forgive you if you haven't heard of the Case of the Stolen Bicycle.
This is a caper, complete with undercover skulduggery and a police officer who mixed good old-fashioned shoe-leather detective work with modern-day sleuthing on the Internet. It took Maryland and Virginia authorities from Elkridge to Arlington and to the basement of a rowhouse in Federal Hill.
The suspect who stands charged with the crime knew a thing or two about bicycling. He raced professionally, talked his way into the inner circle of bicycling enthusiasts and, as Arlington, Va., police Officer Mike Lutz put it, "gained their trust and stole them blind."
It all started back on May 15 when, during renovations in which doors were left open and unguarded, a size 54 red-and-black, carbon-frame Specialized SL2 was stolen from Conte's Bicycle and Fitness Equipment store on Wilson Boulevard in Arlington.
Only a handful of stores are authorized to sell the bike, which retails for about $8,000. Its appearance on the street turns heads; its disappearance brought an immediate call to police from Conte's co-owner, Jody L. Bennett. Officer Lutz promptly came to take a report.
Meanwhile, Gary Lessner, who works at Avalon Cycles on U.S. 1 in Elkridge, befriended a man he met through a Volkswagen club. The man started to hang out at the bicycle shop, told people he was a competitive racer and eventually brought in the SL2 to show off.
Lessner said he liked the guy so much that he helped him land a job at Light Street Cycles in Federal Hill. But he grew suspicious about how someone who had been jobless could afford such an expensive bicycle. He said the man then showed up with another bike, for his girlfriend, worth about $3,500. Lessner said he checked with Light Street Cycles and discovered that a similar bike had recently disappeared and that the new employee was a suspect.
Lessner called around to various shops in the area. He talked to Bennett from Conte's in late August and compared the serial number from his friend's SL2 to her missing SL2. "Sure enough, they matched," he said.
Bennett, now armed with a name, went to the Arlington Police Department, and along with Officer Lutz, started searching the Internet. They found the man they were looking for on Craigslist selling bicycle parts and responded to his ad. He was selling a bicycle rack for a car. Bennett pretended she was looking for one but was worried that her high-end bicycle's wheels wouldn't fit.
