Police: Man Riding Tandem Bike Alone Charged with Theft

Police say they found a man who allegedly stole a tandem bicycle because he was riding the bicycle built for two all by himself.

Officers responded to a home on the 2200 block of Noyes Street on July 29 to meet with the victim of a garage burglary, where his tandem bicycle went missing. The man said that he was cleaning his garage and left the door open between 4:45 and 5:45 p.m.

The man told police he had used two vehicles to block the entrance to the garage, but when he came back he found his bicycle missing and scratches on the side of the vehicles, "as if someone had moved an item past the parked vehicles," according to a police brief on the incident.

"The initial patrol officers put a description of the bicycle out on the police radio and approximately four minutes later, two officers in the area of Church and Dodge observed a subject riding a tandem bicycle that matched the description of the bicycle missing from the garage; they also noted the subject was riding alone on the two seat bicycle."

The man, 18-year-old Blake J. Ross from Evanston, told police he had just purchased the bike in a park, but failed to come up with any proof of the purchase. Investigative efforts failed to find any proof of purchase, and the victim identified the bike as his.

Ross was charged with one misdemeanor count of Theft, and his court date was set for Sept. 13 in Skokie.