Reading police seize 2 dirt bikes, arrest the riders after chases on city streets

Apr. 25—Reading police confiscated two dirt bikes and arrested a pair of riders after separate vehicle pursuits on consecutive days this week.

The arrests are the latest in the crackdown on illegal off-road vehicles, which lack headlights, turn signals and other safety features and are often driven recklessly by unlicensed riders. Over the past few years, police have seized dozens of dirt bikes and ATVs after arresting the riders.

In arrest papers, police provided the following accounts:

On Sunday about 5 p.m. Sgt. Francisco Contreras and Officer Mocha Baldwin were paired in a marked patrol vehicle conducting a directed patrol for illegal ATVs and dirt bikes.

While traveling west on Washington street, they spotted two dirt bikes turn south on North 10th Street from Washington Street. The off-road motorcycles had no lights or registration plates.

The riders appeared to notice the police vehicle and sped away, turning west onto Penn Street, running a red light, then turning right onto North Ninth Street. The riders ran another red light while turning east onto Walnut Street, then turned left onto North 11th Street, running stop signs at several intersections.

Two other officers paired in a patrol vehicle picked up the chase at Ninth and Greenwich streets.

The pursuit continued up the slope of Mount Penn, ending in the 1800 block of Steuben Road. Police captured one rider, Gamalier Mateo Alicea, 20, of Exeter Township.

The other rider got away.

Mateo Alicea was free on $5,000 bail following arraignment Sunday night before District Judge Michael D. Kaufman in Reading Central Court. Mateo Alicea faces charges of fleeing and eluding police, driving without a license and riding an unregistered vehicle on a public street and related offenses.

On Monday about 7:45 p.m., while at Sixth and Penn streets around dusk, Officer Raymond Acevedo spotted a dirt bike and a mini-bike heading west into the 500 block of Penn Street. Acevedo turned around and followed them.

Both motorized vehicles ran a red light as they turned onto North Fifth Street before turning west on Court Street, heading the wrong way on the street that is one-way eastbound.

Both riders turned north on North Third Street. Acevedo followed them and was close behind the dirt bike. That rider, later identified as Anthony Prieto-Prieto, 22, of Reading, ran several red lights and stop signs before stopping in the 400 block of Schuylkill Avenue, laying the bike on the ground and running northbound.

Prieto-Prieto made it as far as the middle of the bridge over the Norfolk Southern Railroad when he stopped, put his hands in the air and surrendered.

Prieto-Prieto of the 1300 block of Butler Street was free on $15,000 bail following arraignment Monday night before District Judge Kim L. Bagenstose in Reading Central Court.

He faces similar charges as Mateo Alicea.