San Rafael Police Arrest Suspect Bicycle Thieves Using Sting Operation
SAN RAFAEL (CBS SF) -- San Rafael Police succeeded Thursday in arresting two suspected bicycle thieves after they set up a sting operation to stymie a rash of thefts.
The San Rafael Police Department Special Operations Unit (SOU) began deploying a "bait bicycle" this week at high visibility areas in the city. One location, near the entrance of a building on the 700 Block of Irwin Street, attracted two subjects, who left and returned to the bike with bolt cutters.
After the pair removed the lock with the bolt cutters and tried to ride, the SOU team arrested them. Police later identified the suspects as 29-year-old Demetrious Holmes and 38-year-old Santa Rosa resident Jasmine Butterfly.
Holmes was arrested for grand theft, possession of burglary tools, conspiracy to commit a crime, and parole violation. Butterfly was arrested for grand theft, conspiracy to commit a crime, driving on a suspended license, and felony warrants out of Siskiyou and Humboldt Counties. Both subjects were booked at the Marin County Jail.
The SOU Team will be periodically conducting these sting operations at various locations in San Rafael in order to address the ongoing issue of these types of thefts.
Anyone with information about this crime is asked to call San Rafael Police at (415) 485-3000. Tips can also be made online at www.srpd.org/tips.
