A 24-year-old Bronx man tried to make off with an improperly docked Citi Bike early Thursday morning, only to be promptly stopped by cops, the Daily News reports. Anthony Jones allegedly tried to filch one of the pricey blue behemoths from the W. 40th Street station in Midtown after a legit renter failed to securely anchor the bike in place.
The News reports that Jones was halted by nearby police, and faces charges of grand larceny, criminal possession of stolen property and perhaps most damningly, failure to pay the bike’s rental fee, the tabloid reports.
What a laudable display of NYPD vigilance! Could it possibly be because Citi Bike thefts are categorized as grand larcenies, meaning each bike that goes missing drives up the department's meticulously managed crime statistics? Quite possibly.
“If one of them gets stolen or vandalized now we’ll get stuck with a number for the grand larceny,” a Manhattan cop told the Post. “You know it’s going to happen. They’re going to get stolen or vandalized.”
The first Citi Bike was stolen on Sunday night, the eve before of the roll-out. The cycle was recovered and the culprit was caught within hours, a DOT spokesperson told us this morning. As for now, the Citi Bike Black Market will have to exist only in our minds...and Craigslist.
