Portland friends hatch intricate plan to recover stolen bike

PORTLAND — When Dory Van Fleet stepped out of the REI store, the black mountain bike he had locked up on the street was gone.

In a steady drizzle, Van Fleet walked across the city to his home, upset about his misfortune.

But within days, Van Fleet began to take action, bolstered by friends' and co-workers' ideas. Soon Van Fleet, 38, and a network of friends devised a sting operation to get his beloved bike back.

While checking Craigslist six days after the theft, he found 10 listings for an REI Novara Arriba bike, including a posting three hours old asking $200. It matched his bike's description. "It was just too suspicious," Van Fleet said.

Van Fleet and four female friends in their late 30s and early 40s hatched a plan, complete with hand signals and code words, to try to recover the bike.

"We have a tight-knit group of friends," Van Fleet said, "and they're all ready at a moment's notice to help me."

Van Fleet e-mailed the seller, offering $180, and arranged to meet him on a Portland street corner two days later — this past Sunday.

Van Fleet's friend, Sharon Shwetzer, 44, offered backup.

"I said, 'Dory, you can't meet this guy alone,' " Shwetzer recalled.

While Shwetzer would approach the suspect with Van Fleet, three other women would be lookouts, either seated in parked cars across the street or walking nearby, armed with cellphones and a baseball bat should trouble ensue.

"You never know what's going to transpire," said Angie Stein, 41, who kept the bat in her blue Honda Element.

Police alerted

Before the scheduled 11 a.m. meeting, Van Fleet called the Portland police nonemergency line to alert them to what was "going down." Days earlier, he had reported his bike stolen and had given police its serial number. Van Fleet still had his receipt from his purchase of the bike 12 years earlier in California.

Van Fleet and his crime-fighters huddled 15 minutes ahead of time, going over details of their plan in the parking lot of a supermarket.

Van Fleet and Shwetzer would pose as boyfriend and girlfriend and meet the seller. Once Van Fleet could identify the bike as his, he'd use the code words, "This is a nice bike." Shwetzer would scratch the back of her head, signaling Stein parked across the street to call police.

"I've watched too many cop shows, I know," Shwetzer admitted.

They got into position outside a cafe. Van Fleet and Shwetzer soon saw a man riding toward them on a bicycle.

Parked catty-corner to the meeting place, Stein kept her eye on Shwetzer.

"It was challenging," Stein recalled. "All these people were outside. All these bikes were on the bike rack outside the cafe."

Van Fleet saw a man with a black hooded sweatshirt ride up. Van Fleet recognized the black mountain bike with silver spokes as his. He and his friend let the man pass. They watched him stop about 25 feet away and sit in an alcove next to the cafe.

Shwetzer gave the signal.

At 11:10 a.m., Stein called 911. "I need a police officer at Sixth and Ash right away," Stein remembered saying. "We've got a bunch of people here incognito, and we need police."

Staying on alert

A dispatcher kept Stein on the phone as she relayed a description of the man's clothes, the bike and his location. Van Fleet and Shwetzer stayed on the corner, keeping their eye on the man and waited.

Within about two minutes, Van Fleet saw a police car approaching. A second patrol car came from another direction.

Stein said the man in the sweatshirt ducked between two buildings a half-block away. Stein drove over to engage the man before police arrived. She rolled down her window and asked for directions. He didn't respond.

Shwetzer tried to stall the suspect as well. She walked up to him (Van Fleet, she says, was hiding behind her) and asked, "Are you here to sell that bike? That's my boyfriend's bike."

As police came around the corner, Stein waved them down and pointed out the culprit. Four officers surrounded him. The man blurted out to police, "Hey, I just found the bike." By 11:20 a.m., the 26-year-old suspect was handcuffed and accused of second-degree theft.

As Stein drove back around to meet her friends, she pumped her fist in the air and shouted, "Justice prevails!"

"It was all perfect timing," Shwetzer said. "The cops rolled up. It was like the movies. It was awesome."

Van Fleet and his friends high-fived and lingered as police questioned the man. Using the serial number, officers identified the bike as Van Fleet's and returned it to him. It had been stripped of a bike light and pump but otherwise was in good condition.

"It was like finding a needle in a haystack," Van Fleet said. "I had things stolen in the past but never recovered, so this was kind of sweet."