NYPD Tricks Deliverymen Into Buying Stolen Bikes, Arrests Them

A police bike locked up with handcuffs (niznoz 's flickr).

As if the NYPD's ongoing Operation "Lucky Bag" weren't headache enough, the city has recently run a variation on the theme against East Village deliverymen. The Times reports that last month undercover officers in the neighborhood went around offering to sell delivery guys stolen bikes for $40 bucks. Those that took the bait, got busted.

The police insist that in each of the stings (at least three stings have been confirmed) the officers made sure to mention that the bikes were stolen. But the arrested deliverymen beg to differ. “He didn’t say it was stolen,” Fredy Lopez-Velazquez, a busted deliveryman from S'Mac told the paper. “He just said, ‘Do you want a bike?... I feel it wasn’t fair.”

The sting, which we like to call "Operation Bark Up The Wrong Tree," came about because there has been an uptick in stolen bicycles in the East Village and after the successful sting against the Busy Bee Bike Shop last year, none of the other bike shops in the neighborhood are dimwitted enough to buy hot wheels. So instead the cops are entrapping poor people who of course would be tempted by the offer of a cheap, solid bike. Though that isn't why the cops say they targeted them, instead police spokesman Paul Browne told that Grey Lady that "officers heard from bicycle riders who expressed 'suspicion that messengers and deliverymen' had bought bicycles directly from thieves." Why they didn't try and catch the actual bike thieves with some easy to steal bikes? Who knows, but that does sound like a lot more work.

In theory the deliverymen can try and claim entrapment, but that will be tricky as state law requires that they prove the police "induced or encouraged" them to commit a crime they were not predisposed to commit. “Conduct merely affording a person an opportunity to commit an offense does not constitute entrapment,” the law states.

So let this be a lesson to you all. If a person tries to sell you a bike they say is stolen, don't buy it. Though the police say the operation is over for now, it could come back at any time. Explained Browne, “The command addresses conditions as they arise, but it’s not going to show its hand in advance.”

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Garth Johnston in News on July 28, 2011 2:57 PM

Comments [rss]

Guest

Jury nullification for all of these arrests if they go to trial. Nullification should also be used for the majority of marijuana busts.

http://fija.org/

m_c_nyc

Police State

RammyH

Please, legal experts/attys/cops/etc - Is the conversation between undercover and delivery guy recorded?

Because seriously, if the convo isn't taped - its all hearsay, aint it?

Undercover swears on a stack of bibles he explicitly mentions bike is stolen - delivery guy says the cops said no such thing. What happens then?

Guest

What happens is that the guy is found guilty. For some insane reason the word of a police officer is usually considered as the absolute truth. People are so damn gullible.

Ted

This is ridiculous. Entrapping and inducing some of the city's poorest residents into committing a crime? Curious that NYPD does not spend any resources entrapping and inducing the city's richest residents into committing all the white collar crimes that are equally prevalent. As if the criminal justice system doesn't already disproportionately impact the lower classes that we need to use new forms of entrapment to artifically induce the commission of crimes.

Why isn't NYPD calling stock traders and offering insider information to them?

NYPD could achieve the same result by offering a free bike to anyone who turns in a seller of stolen bikes without the morally reprehensible implications of lower class entrapment.

Guest

Take a look at Ed Koch's letter to the editor in today's NY Times. It is the first time old crotchety has made any sense in a long while. This whole operation is pathetic.

Guest

I was truly outraged by “Bike Sting Operation Draws Arrests, and Criticism” (news article, July 28). New York City police officers arrested bicycle deliverymen in a sting operation offering them stolen bikes at a substantial discount.A Legal Aid lawyer quoted, Jerrold Berman, was right in his comment, “What they’re really doing is testing your moral fiber.” I have no doubt that a significant number of middle-class people, if offered merchandise like a TV set and told that it was cheap because it had “fallen off a truck,” would fail the integrity test.While the sting is not entrapment, and if pursued in Criminal Court will probably end in a conviction, is it fair and something New Yorkers or our Police Department should be proud of? My answer is a resounding no.I am especially outraged because people with great wealth were essentially allowed to steal from our citizens, causing the value of 401(k) plans to plummet and homes to be foreclosed, yet they are not pursued criminally. It would be shameful if bike deliverymen were punished criminally in this matter.
EDWARD I. KOCHNew York, July 28, 2011

Ted

test

heyhohey

Catch the bike thieves. No one is going to stop stealing bikes if you are arresting broke delivery people. More than likely they're selling them on craigslist, outside the city, or to a different sketchy bike shop.

Lcpljoel

I guess if they claimed they were entrapped then it must be true eh, BULLSHIT ARTICLE... Is Gothamist always about being anticop or am I missing something here??

Lcpljoel

I guess if they claimed they were entrapped then it must be true eh, BULLSHIT ARTICLE... Is Gothamist always about being anticop or am I missing something here??

canofpeas

I have an idea, why don't cops pose as people looking to buy a stolen bike and bust the person stealing them? They're sold around Cooper Sq and the news stand on 2nd and 8th if the NYPD needs directions.

randomtransplant

Anybody whose ever tried to find a decent deal by cursing the region's Craigslist posts will tell you, the scope of the theft goes well beyond the city borders and is far more organized than a few delivery guys' demand could be financing.

They wouldn't even have to do the locked-up-dummy-bike routine. If they just started publically busting people who get caught on MTA video near the trains, already, theives would probably be less blatant.

NYPD's heart sounds like its in the right place. By busting/entraping hard-working poor people from other countries on single points of sale, though....that never works with anything.

I've noticed online, alot of the people dumb enough to leave a nice bike locked outside for hours are also the same people who are dumb enough to assume it must be the delivery rider's out of hand.

whitecastlerock

I am not following where they tricked anyone.

Grytpype-Thynne

You want to know why the frames of delivery bikes are usually wrapped up in black tape? Because they're stolen. Try thinking about the people whose bikes were stolen.

randomtransplant

Tape on the frame prevents chewing through aluminum with a steel chain, which is why a lot of the tricked out suspension bikes also tend to have colored tape.

I'm not calling anybody an angel, but it actually is a commonly used tool for the delivery job.

cr17

Want to catch bike thieves? Y'know those guys who travel around the city in the middle of the night picking up used furniture and scrap metal in vans and small trucks? Those are your suspects. They've got the tools to cut through locks in a couple of seconds, and then they just toss it in the back of the truck and off they go. It would require the cops to use a form of transportation that's low-profile and quiet, like a bike, which is a coincidence because after today they'll have some extra bikes laying from this failed sting operation.

ogie

how about this .... put that same bike chained to a pole with a shitty chain and then wait for someone to try and steal it.

xXxMExXx

Hint: Real people selling stolen stuff don’t tell you it’s stolen.

snarfy

I'd love to see stings going after bike thieves. Not sure what the penalties are but they should be really, really stiff for stealing a bike. Like 3-6 months in jail. That may be considered overkill but the chances of getting arrested for taking a bike are minimal (zero?). The punishment needs to be ratcheted up to make the risk/reward for stealing a bike unfavorable.