East Village Bike Shop Busted in Stolen Bike Sting

Lchance's Flickr

It's common practice for certain disreputable bicycle shops to purchase stolen bikes from thieves and then resell them. But it's rare that the police take action, which makes the recent crackdown on the Busy Bee Bike Shop on East Sixth Street so special. Streetsblog reports that the NYPD's Civil Enforcement Unit has shut down the shop pending "an ongoing investigation." The crusty, punky, DIY-ish bike shop was a good source for air and cheap U-locks, but it always did seem a little sketchy. (As one Yelper puts it, "If you want to pay too much for a bike of sketchy quality sold to you by a guy that probably lied to you about the bike, then this is the place!") Now two employees have been arrested.

One Busy Bee employee was arrested last Friday after purchasing stolen property from an undercover officer, and another was collared late last month for criminal possession of stolen property. Lt. Patrick Ferguson of the Ninth Precinct tells Streetsblog the owners will appear in civil court on Wednesday. At press time, MC Busy Bee Starski could not be reached for comment.

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By John Del Signore in News on February 23, 2010 1:10 PM

Comments [rss]

hunter.blatherer

Say what you want about coyotes, but they're not bike thieves.

mrstu

Wait, so the guy was arrested last friday trying to buy stolen property... AFTER his co-worker got busted for possession of stolen property last month? Three cheers for stupid criminals, I guess.

pinball29

So what if theres a coyote in Central Park? As someone else pointed out, he seems to be doing just fine. He/she has shelter, food, media attention and people who care about him enough to rant on a post about bicycles. As long as he can avoid getting a ticket from the NYPD for loitering, taking up too much space on a rock, getting into the zoo w/out paying $7.00, or public urination, hes better off than most of us. Leave him the fuck alone.

longacre

The coyote seems to be doing quite well without anyone's assistance. Leave him alone.

hotstepper

ok people, we'll go ahead and shut down the BB bike shop. but don't come back a week from now whining about the death of gritty ny.

jibbly

Gritty ny left the east village a long, long time ago. People who want "gritty" can go to Philly or Cleveland (which are the equivalents to "Hell").

meechybee

Yay. Those high-end racing and mountain bikes don't end up as Chinese delivery bikes covered in electrical tape by themselves ya know.

palndrom23

I've went in there to buy a cone wrench once, and the guy was visibly shocked that I asked for such an item. Bust this place.

Teddie Boy Eddie

Don't steal bikes, bro. Don't steal bikes.

Ishtar

Ha!

longacre

+1

pissflaps

i've always wanted to leave a flaming bag of dog shit in front of their door...

but nobody would notice prolly.

chuzzlewit

check this shot

chuzzlewit

oh - that's wrong...anyway it's here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eusemnexo/913346718/

kazubes

I always wondered how that place stayed afloat, most of their bikes looked to be in very poor shape or had all sorts of random parts

CR

While the guys in there a def sleazy, I'm not sure what's wrong with having a store full of random parts. Those guys who build bikes on the street corners have shopping carts full of random parts, and they still manage to put together perfectly workable, functioning bikes. I understand that this in New York and not having a hip bike, or a retro bike, or a 60 pound Dutch City bike you may end up getting fined by your co-op board or attacked by Bill Cunningham.

jibbly

WTF is up with the vitriol? This place was shady as shit that had stripped parts piled up in their store, selling subpar junk bikes (sometimes in unrideable condition) at ridiculous prices to unsuspecting first time buyers.

CR

You completely misread what I wrote because at no point did I say that they were honest. Most of my post was about the guys who build bikes on the corner of the park, and those guys are not Busy Bee guys, as far as I know.

"that had stripped parts piled up in their store" - Are you privy to exactly what they were busted for, because "stripped" doesn't always imply "stolen".

jibbly

This post is about how this shop was busted for buying stolen bikes and parts. They also have a reputation for being shady. Innocent until proven guilty of course, but put two and two together and all those random components in the shop seem pretty suspect to me.

jules1000

I hate that bike shop. They've tried to rip me off several times. I always had a weird feeling about the characters in there, so I'm not surprised at all!

Greenpoint60

In China they have guys you hire to watch your bike so that it does mot get stolen, they sit on a chair and smoke a cigarette

Greenpoint60

I forgot to add that if you dont pay them, their friends steal your bike

jibbly

The inside of their tiny shop looks like a chop shop with random bike components piled on top of each other. Last year when I wandered in, the two guys tried to sell me a junky old 5spd with a rusted out headset and hubs for $300. Good riddance.