This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2014, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
A crackdown by police on rising downtown Salt Lake City bicycle thefts has resulted in several arrests so far.
Salt Lake City police Detective Dennis McGowan said a "bait bike" was parked near an area of homeless shelters in the vicinity of 300 South and Rio Grande on Thursday. Officers then kept the bicycle under surveillance and moved in as three suspects in turn attempted to either ride off with, or take items from the bicycle.
Instead, they were quickly caught and arrested. The three men — ages 56, 49 and 43 — all were booked into Salt Lake County Jail on suspicion of theft and unrelated outstanding warrants.
McGowan said such anti-theft efforts, under the auspices of the SLCPD's Community Intelligence Unit, were ongoing and on varying schedules to keep criminals off-balance.
While specific incident statistics were not available, McGowan said the bike theft sting operation came in the wake of such crimes "trending upward," not only in the homeless shelters area, but throughout the city.
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