Seattle police bust Belltown shop for trafficking in stolen bicycles
Apr 14, 2014, 5:34 PM | Updated: 5:54 pm
Seattle police have arrested the owner of a Belltown bicycle shop for allegedly buying, rebuilding and selling thousands of dollars worth of stolen bikes.
Detectives have been investigating Bicycle Pull-Apart near 3rd Avenue and Battery Street for several months, after receiving tips about the alleged chop shop, Seattle police reported Monday.
In March, investigators linked the owner to the suspicious sale of a $4,000 bike stolen from a Belltown apartment building in June 2013. A search of an online tracking system used to track stolen and re-sold items revealed the owner had pawned the stolen bike to his own store. Police believe he tried to sell the same bike on eBay in March.
Detectives arrested the owner on March 13 and booked him into the King County Jail for trafficking in stolen property and continued investigating sales at the shop.
The subsequent probe revealed suspiciously mistyped serial numbers entered in the online system—making it much more difficult to search for stolen bikes in the system. Detectives also found records showing that more than half of the bikes bought by the shop between February 2013 and January 2014 were bought from convicted felons, many with records for burglary and theft.
Detectives returned to Pull-Apart April 9th, where they served a warrant and recovered three stolen bikes, collectively valued at more than $9,000.
Detectives are still investigating the shop and are working to return stolen bikes to their rightful owners.
Police say if you’ve previously reported your bike stolen, please make sure you’ve provided your bike’s serial number. If you haven’t, please call (206) 625-5011 and provide your case number and your bike’s info to the Telephone Reporting Unit.
