{"id":350934,"date":"2010-02-22T18:40:12","date_gmt":"2010-02-22T23:40:12","guid":{"rendered":"tag:typepad.com,2003:post-6a00d8341c630a53ef0120a8c5309a970b"},"modified":"2010-02-22T19:03:20","modified_gmt":"2010-02-23T00:03:20","slug":"bike-couriers-chase-down-bicycle-thief-in-wild-downtown-pursuit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/350934","title":{"rendered":"Bike couriers chase down bicycle thief in wild downtown pursuit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"The<\/img><\/a> Two bike messengers saved the day for a Los Angeles man Monday when they chased a bike thief for five blocks downtown and then knocked him to the ground, causing him to flee, police said.<\/p>\n

Jesus Tobar, 43, said he was working out at 24-Hour Fitness in the 500 block of Flower Street\u00a0in downtown Los Angeles<\/a> when he emerged to find his green Iron Horse Desperado Mountain Bike gone.<\/p>\n

Tobar returned to the gym to ask if there was any security surveillance video. But two bike couriers had seen his $500 bike being taken and had already set off after the thief.<\/p>\n

The couriers pedaled through downtown at high speed on a chase that traversed sidewalks and busy streets, said LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith. Eventually, one of the messengers was able to grab the thief’s shirt and pull him to the ground.<\/p>\n

The man then took off on foot and the couriers reclaimed the bike.<\/p>\n

"This was a wild, high-speed bicycle chase through crowded streets of the Jewelry Mart," Smith said. "We are now looking for a 30-year-old man with a torn shirt, a possibly sprained ankle, as well as\u00a0road rash."<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Although this case had a happy ending, officials say bike thefts have been on the rise<\/a>, increasing 29% last year and bucking an overall drop in crime. Los Angeles Police Department detectives believe the increase is in part a result of more people using bikes to get around in some neighborhoods. <\/p>\n

A Times analysis of LAPD data found the USC campus area, Venice, parts of Hollywood and downtown L.A. to be hot spots for bike thefts.<\/p>\n

As the thefts have increased, some people have taken matters into their own hands. Last month, bike messengers downtown caught two suspected thieves, teenage boys who attended a local Catholic high school, and stripped them down to their boxer shorts before taking their cellphones, backpacks and clothes.<\/p>\n

— Andrew Blankstein<\/p>\n

Map: The location where the bike was stolen. <\/em>Click for the Downtown Mapping L.A. Neighborhoods page<\/em><\/a> to learn more about the area.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two bike messengers saved the day for a Los Angeles man Monday when they chased a bike thief for five blocks downtown and then knocked him to the ground, causing him to flee, police said. Jesus Tobar, 43, said he was working out at 24-Hour Fitness in the 500 block of Flower Street\u00a0in downtown Los […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5471,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-350934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5471"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=350934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=350934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=350934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=350934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}