Armed with bear mace, Bloomington man tracks stolen bike to Switchyard Park

A Bloomington man armed with binoculars and bear mace tracked his stolen mountain bike to a Switchyard Park homeless camp and paid a $100 ransom to get it back.

This was the second mountain bike stolen from the garage at James Brown's house, located not far from the park. Police recovered the first one, stolen in July 2022, at Crawford Apartments. It had been painted another color and adorned with elf stickers, he said, and needed $400 worth of repairs.

Rumors of a bicycle-theft ring operating among some of the city's unhoused residents have been debunked by the Bloomington Police Department. When asked a few months ago about such an operation, BPD spokesman Capt. Ryan Pedigo said he was unaware of an organized group stealing and reselling bikes.

But Brown stepped into just that when he went looking for his $4,500 Ibis full-suspension mountain bike the afternoon of Saturday, Nov. 25.

Tips on protecting your stuff: Is your bicycle safe from thieves in Bloomington? Maybe not.

The bike disappeared one afternoon when his garage door was left open half an hour. Upset about a second bike getting stolen, the 58-year-old social worker grabbed a pair of binoculars and a can of bear mace he takes on Canadian camping trips and set out to patrol the B-Line Trail.

Not much time had passed. Maybe he could find the bike.

Buying his bike back in Switchyard Park

Brown ventured into a few homeless encampments along the creek at the edge of Switchyard Park, asking if anyone has seen his gray Ibis mountain bike. He noticed more than a dozen high-end bicycles, some of them pricey electric ones, in the camps.

He said one of the transient people he encountered told him where to inquire about his missing bike. He went to that location, left his phone number and got a call a few minutes later from a man saying he had found the mountain bike.

Three men emerged from the camp, riding electric bikes, and said he could have his back for $200.

His Ibis had a flat tire, so he and one of the men went to the tire pump at Switchyard Park to inflate it. Brown left with the bike, promising a reward. He got a call later, met the man outside the Community Kitchen and gave him $100.

Whether it was ransom or reward money didn't matter. He had his bicycle back.

Bloomington police: Serial number needed to recover stolen bicycles

When asked this week about what Brown saw, Pedigo said, again, the department is unaware. "If someone does have knowledge of such a thing, I wish they would provide us with that information."

Brown said he called BPD Nov. 27 to talk to a supervisor about the case, but was on hold seven minutes, then sent to a voicemail message system. He got mad and hung up. Pedigo said he called Brown back at 4 p.m. but got no answer and no voicemail.

Since the encampments are on city-owned Switchyard Park property, a search warrant wouldn't be required. But police need a serial number before they can confiscate an allegedly stolen bicycle.

Pedigo said the serial number from Brown's bike wasn't on the police report, which was filed by his wife after he left to search. Brown returned home with the bike in less than two hours, and left a voicemail message at BPD that it had been found.

Two days later, he sent an email message to The Herald-Times and BPD Chief Mike Diekhoff describing a possible nefarious underground enterprise targeting expensive bikes likely parted out or resold for cash. Sometimes they're also sold back to the original owner.

"What the police told me was I probably wasn't going to get it back," he said. "And that's the rub, since they should know where these bikes are since it's public city land."

"We are unaware of any organized theft ring taking bikes from  Bloomington," Pedigo said Tuesday. "That doesn't mean it isn't occurring, but I have no knowledge of it."

More than 100 bikes reported stolen in Bloomington since August

Since Indiana University students returned to town in August, BPD has received 90 stolen bicycle reports from all around the city. IUPD reported 19 more. That's more than 100 bikes, most never seen again.

Some, like Brown's, cost thousands of dollars. On Sept. 28, a 21-year-old said his locked Surron LBX electric bicycle, worth about $4,000, was taken from outside his residence.

Brown said when his first bicycle was stolen, he learned about the bike-theft network and talked to a neighbor who had paid to get his returned.

"I didn't realize it was on the scale that it was and that they have a process in which they are breaking down bikes and parting them out, and selling them back to owners like myself," he said this week.

He said prosecuting bike thieves may not be a priority for the local justice system. But he's bewildered there's no investigation into what he said appears to be a cartel.

"Something is awry," Brown said, "when homeless people are riding around on stolen $3,000 bikes and no one thinks it's suspicious."

Reach reporter Laura Lane at llane@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington man says he bought stolen bike back in Switchyard Park