As Web Fuels Bike Thefts, Victims Turn Vigilantes

Bike shops have also been hit. Montgomery police arrested two college students on felony theft charges last year after they walked into City Bikes in Chevy Chase, dropped off fake IDs and took off for a "test ride" that never ended.

"Off they rode into the sunset with two bikes worth more than $7,500," said police Sgt. Michael Hartnett, who cracked the case. "The IDs were really good fakes, and they talked the talk."

In the days that followed, a similar theft and a few attempted bike thefts occurred at stores elsewhere in the region. Hartnett soon found ads on eBay for bikes like the ones stolen from City Bikes. The ad had been placed by a University of Colorado student who was home in College Park for the winter break. Hartnett obtained a search warrant for the student's house and found the bikes. The Colorado student and a friend, who went to school at Johns Hopkins University, were convicted.

"You'd think they knew better," Hartnett said.

Moulton, 41, an avid biker who doesn't drive or even have a license, has had three bikes stolen and two destroyed in accidents. He wasn't exactly mourning the loss of the Cannonade, which had been stolen while locked outside his gym near Dupont Circle, when he saw the ad. But the thought that someone out there was about to make $1,000 and had the nerve to sell it locally and in public outraged him.

He asked friends to contact the seller to find out where he was and, he hoped, to buy some time.

He soon discovered that the police department had lost the report he filed when the bike was stolen. He called the mayor's office and eventually got in touch with Smith, the lieutenant, who in turn got in touch with investigators in the district that covers Georgetown. They told Moulton that they weren't sure how soon they could set up a sting. Moulton felt he was running against the clock.

"I thought someone else would grab it," he said "We had to act fast."

So Moulton, who is by no means scrawny, enlisted the help of a friend and set out to confront the seller with evidence that the bike was his. Once they were face to face with the seller, he planned to call 911.

The police intervened at the last minute, Moulton said. An undercover vice officer met the seller at a residential street in Georgetown while Moulton waited nearby.

Adam, reached last week on his cellphone, said he was selling the bike for a friend who works at a pawn shop in Prince George's County.

"I had no idea it was stolen," said Adam, who declined to provide his last name or identify the pawn shop.