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February 1, 2008 > News > Bicycle thefts continue

Bicycle thefts continue

Background investigations reveal thieves more than just petty criminals

By Sarah Rutledge | Thresher Editorial Staff

When Rice University Police Department originally began collecting bikes across campus during the winter break, it was nothing more than a countermeasure. With Rice experiencing a rash of bike thefts, RUPD Captain Phil Hassell said. He collected unfastened bikes to cut off all resources for bike thieves setting their sights on the Rice campus.

“If you have roommate in an apartment and you all are fairly clean, but you have one roommate who leaves food lying around, it’s just going to attract roaches and rats.” Hassell said. “The same analogy for these thieves: You’ve attracted somebody to campus that not only victimizes you but is victimizing other people.”

Not surprisingly, this countermeasure was met with a lot of student resistance, especially after RUPD had enacted a similar measure with unsecured laptops in Fondren Library last fall. But a recent Thresher examination of RUPD profiles reveals that the majority of bicycle thieves on campus are more than petty thieves. RUPD chief Bill Taylor said most of these thieves are habitual drug users and steal for drug money.

“It’s the easy way of getting the money they need to buy their next hit,” Taylor said.

Hassell said that the bicycle thieves communicate amongst themselves about opportunities at Rice. One of the apprehended thieves confessed while in custody to hearing about Rice from others.

“He said he heard from them that Rice is easy picking, so that’s what he did,” Hassell said.

RUPD also learned from a thief in custody that bicycles were being sold at pawn shops near the Greyhound Bus Station on Main St.

Of the four apprehended bicycle thieves so far, all have more extensive criminal records than petty theft.

One thief has been convicted twice for a burglary of a vehicle, evading the police, delivery of a controlled substances, criminal mischief, possession of a controlled substance 1 to 4 grams, driving with an invalid license. After attempting to steal an unregistered bike, he came back to campus and was charged with criminal trespassing.

He returned to campus again Friday and attempted to steal a bike from the Wiess College bike rack. After cutting the lock, he rode away on the bike, evading police for almost ten minutes, Taylor said. The thief then crawled under the fence around the south power plant before being chased down by the police officers and handcuffed.

“[The officers] started looking around, trying to find the bicycle, and one officer looked up, and there it was, hanging on the fence,” Taylor said.

Taylor said the man had in his possession a hash pipe with hash residue intact. He said finding drug users who steal to purchase drugs is not uncommon.

Another apprehended thief has on his criminal record robbery with a weapon, unauthorized use of a vehicle, dangerous drugs, delivery of a controlled substance, two counts possession of a controlled substance, two counts of prostitution — meaning that he was most likely a pimp — and evading arrest with a vehicle.

Another thief brought into custody has been convicted of auto theft, driving with a suspended license, possession of a controlled substance, driving while intoxicated, theft from the elderly, theft by check, evading arrest and theft.

The last individual brought into custody has been convicted of theft, three or more convictions of driving while intoxicated, assault with bodily injury, burglary, theft, possession of a controlled substance, two instances of criminal trespass in a habitation and two burglaries of a coin operated machine.

But the situation is reaching new levels with these career criminals-turned-bicycle-thieves, with some crossing the boundary into attacking RUPD officers. At 2:42 a.m. last Wednesday, a police officer spotted a man attempting to steal a bike from the Wiess bike rack. He had already cut at least two bikes loose, Taylor said. She then interrupted him and while trying to handcuff him got into a fight in which the thief hit the officer over the head.

The officer felt nauseous afterwards and suffered injuries similar to those of a concussion, Hassell said.

Taylor said while most criminals surrender themselves upon arrest, this man was surprisingly unwilling to comply with the orders.

“I think what happened is, she got there, she saw him, he saw her [and] she had to do something,” Taylor said. “She’s an officer who is very competent and capable, but you don’t always expect someone to come and hit you upside the head.”

The thief ran away and is still on the loose, though he left behind the tools he had used to cut the bikes loose. Presently, the tools are being examined for fingerprints. Taylor said he is confident that the automated fingerprint technology will lead to the identification and arrest of the perpetrator.

Taylor said recently the majority of the thieves have been white, though he did not want to profile the criminals. Hassell said the thieves are not from any particular area of Houston.

Hassell said he thinks the crime around Rice has escalated in the past few years partly because of the fallout from Hurricane Katrina. Due to the hurricane over two years ago, many people relocated to Houston from New Orleans.

“We got a lot of good people from New Orleans, but a lot of criminals came from New Orleans too,” Hassell said. “Add those criminals to our criminals and there’s going to be a spike in crime, and that spike has been across Houston.”

Taylor said the increased crime may also be due to criminals going in and out of jail. Many thieves repeatedly come back to Rice after going to other areas of the city, he said.

As a result of the thefts, RUPD mobilized its efforts in stationing officers at the entrances to campus. They also installed decoys, attaching bikes via cables to the racks with officers looking on for possible thieves.

“The patrol guys were catching them as they were either coming on or leaving campus, so we didn’t catch them through the [decoy bikes],” Hassell said. “They were caught by the patrol being watchful.”

Hassell said that as a result of the increased security and registration measures, bike theft on campus is already declining.

“We’re always going to have bikes being stolen as long as we have bikes that are unsecured or improperly secured, but not quite that number,” Hassell said.

Hassell said he hopes to increase the awareness among the residential colleges about the importance of students registering their bikes to prevent future theft.

“Somebody had brought up the fact that they were here for four years and didn’t know you were required to register your bike by university rules,” Hassell said.

Hassell said he wants RUPD to look into having a more detailed database describing the bikes and other objects RUPD confiscates.

End of article

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