By Charles Sercombe – August 13, 2008 

            If you own a bike, better hold on tight.

            A small crime wave of bike thefts has hit town, judging by what we’ve heard on the police scanner and in talking with investigators.

            Monday afternoon was a madhouse, with police officers chasing down three bike thefts in the spate of an hour.

            The most alarming theft happened to a brother and sister who are about 10-11 years old. They were at the Jos. Campau-Belmont area when a group of thuggish teenagers approached them, hit them and stole their bikes.

            Fortunately, officers were able to respond quickly and were given a good description of what the thugs looked like and where they were heading. A teen boy was arrested and will be charged with strong-armed robbery, which is another way of saying he used force instead of a weapon to commit the robbery.

            An investigator in the records department wasn’t sure if both or just one bike was recovered. The investigator, Wally Tripp, said the department has already confiscated about 25 bikes that were likely stolen.

            A couple of months ago the department auctioned off its bikes collected from the previous year. Now the department already has 25.

            According to longtime residents, beware of teens and kids riding double – they’re on the lookout to steal a bike.

            Longtime resident Sandra Dziedziula said bike thefts have been happening here for decades. In an email she gave this account:

“There's NEVER a moratorium on bike stealing - it's just what happens in the city.  And always HAS.  It's been happening ever since we moved back in 1961.  They got my communion present blue green Western Auto immediately.  And they tried to take my sister's from under her butt, SLAPPED HER FACE HARD, but she would not get up. 

“She was just a little girl.  AND they stole Neil's when he was about 6, I just bought the damn thing, and they took it FROM him on our street.  So it's nothing new.”