Police are warning residents to lock up their bikes -- even inside their garages. A serial bike burglar is on the loose, having taken a plethora of bicycles from Inner Sunset garages in six different incidents over the last few weeks.
Police Captain Denis O'Leary says that it's very possible one of the suspects is living in a storage room in one of the buildings that he's been victimizing.
"One suspect has been seen in three incidents," O'Leary writes in an e-mail.
The first incident was reported on Aug. 4 -- someone had broken into a garage on the 1300 block of Sixth Avenue and stole a few bikes. The next evening, a resident living on the 1200 block of Second Avenue heard someone break into his garage and ransack it. The victim confronted the suspect, who then pulled a knife and threatened him. The robber made off with the victim's bike.
The following week, four more burglaries took place. On Aug. 7, a resident living on Third Avenue saw that his garage door had been pried open and his bicycles were gone. Three days later, a resident living on Fifth Avenue reported hearing breaking glass, and later found several bikes were gone. Later that morning, another resident on Fifth Avenue told police they heard breaking glass, but in this case, a laptop was stolen out of a building storage area.
The bike thief struck again on Aug. 13., when residents reported seeing a black man walking away from their apartment building. The residents later reported their bikes had been stolen out of the same storage area, O'Leary says.
In three of the incidents, witnesses described the suspect as a black man, between the ages of 40 and 45. He's been seen wearing baseball caps and has a salt and pepper beard. He is roughly 6-feet tall and weighs about 180 pounds. The suspect has also been seen with another black man in his late teens or early 20s. The two men were seen pedaling away from one of the crime scenes.
O'Leary says that Park station police have increased patrols in that area. Anyone with information or to report a similar incident should call police at (415) 553-0123.
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