Bike Theft to Become Elevated Concern in DC

This is pretty embarrassing. Two young men rode up to Mayor Fenty's house on poor quality bikes and decided to swap theirs for a couple of his. They stole two 1-year old mountain bikes worth about $300 each - while the security detail watched on closed-circuit TV.

The thefts occurred on June 3 around 7:40 p.m., while officers were on the grounds of the Fenty home, records show.

The mayor's home is under camera surveillance and has an around-the-clock police security detail assigned to it. According to internal police records, detectives were reviewing surveillance tapes and testing the left-behind bikes for evidence. At least one officer is now facing discipline on neglect charges from Police Chief Cathy Lanier.

The thieves must be totally bummed that they didn't get their hands on the $12,000 Colnago racing bike Fenty was given.

If your own private police security detail can't keep you from having your bike stolen, what hope is there?

At least Fenty is not alone.

Comments

[SJE]

In the Roman legions, a watchman who fell asleep was executed the next day. I'm not advocating such measures, but I hope that Cathy Lanier throws the book at this officer.

[JeffB]

He was probably just confused. You mean bike theft is a crime?!?!

[Contrarian]

I certainly hope the MPD is insisting to the Mayor that his bike wasn't really stolen, he must have just misplaced it.

[Washcycle]

The really story will be if they recover his bikes. Most people I know have had a bike stolen in DC, and I don't know of anyone who had the police test anything for evidence. If they bother to show up, they give you a number and go on their way. Has anyone ever had a bike recovered by MPD? If 100% of all the bikes recovered in DC over the last three years happened to belong to the Mayor, that will be a story.

[Richard Layman]

Maybe this is an opportunity for the police dept. to take these kinds of thefts more seriously...