The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has around 50 bicycles recovered in a bike burglary sting, and they are looking for owners who have been the victim of a bike theft.
Three men were arrested at a bike owner's home in Rancho Cucamonga as they were preparing to enter a garage and steal a bike. The group had been repeatedly posing as potential bike buyers on Craigslist, and then establishing enough information about the buyer to find their addresses.
They also used publicly posted information on Facebook and the White Pages website to find people selling bikes, according to a release from the department.
The trio would then take the stolen bikes, which were usually high-end bikes worth between $5,000 and $15,000, and sell them at a bike shop at 5156 Venice Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Julian Herrera, 23 of Los Angeles, Jaime Herrera, 21 of Panorama City
and Alberto Mejia, 24 of Colton have all been arrested and are currently housed in San Bernardino County jail. Charges are pending against the owner of the bikeshop, according to the county's press release.
Anyone in San Bernardino, Los Angeles, or Orange County who posted an ad selling a bike and later had it stolen could be a victim, according to Lt. Kent Wegener of the Sheriff's Department.
Investigators have established burglaries that have taken place in Agoura Hills, Westlake Village, Woodland Hills, Santa Clarita, Whittier, Oak Park, Temecula, Murrieta, Irvine, Fountain Valley, San Bernardino, Thousand Oaks, and Torrey Pines, according to the department.
However, according to Wegener, there may be additional victims in other cities that the department does not know about.
Anyone who thinks they are a victim should contact the department at 562-946-7893. Victims should have the brand, model and serial number of their bikes available, as well as the police report number documenting the theft
So far, the department has tracked down about 15 victims and returned bikes to them, Wegener said. The bikes totaled more than $100,000 in value, he added.
