By Leslie Slape, The Associated Press
LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) - It’s the middle of the night. The crunch of gravel is barely audible as the bicyclist cruises down the dark alley without a headlight. He arrives at an address he chose during the day - perhaps it’s where you left aluminum windows leaning against a garage wall, or where you parked your car with the expensive stereo, or where he saw you throw a working VCR in the trash.
Acting quickly, he grabs what he wants and glides on.
Local police say some criminals use the cover of darkness and the silence of a bicycle to raid trash bins or commit burglaries, vehicle prowls and drug deals. And with the ability to travel where patrol cars can’t, bicyclists can be a challenge for officers to catch.
But not everyone on a bike at night is a bad guy, police officers say. The suspicious behavior, not the bike, is how police distinguish the potential thief from the honest citizen.
Kyle Teigen, 28, and Max Stimson, 33, are reformed “night people” - one of the terms bicycle prowlers commonly use to refer to themselves - who once made a living by diving in trash bins. Both Longview residents were arrested earlier this year on narcotics possession charges and say they’ve gone straight.
“Night people almost have an allergic reaction to the sun,” Stimson said. “I was daylight challenged.”
Now Teigen, who lives in the Highlands neighborhood, and Stimson, who lives at the Oaks Trailer Court, are themselves constantly on guard against thieves of the night. Teigen says his dogs bark all night and his backyard motion detector is often activated at 2 or 3 a.m.
“I don’t think there’s a night that goes by that I don’t see two or three people in the alley riding their bikes,” Teigen said. “What they’re doing is jumping in the trash bins out back and going in garages. It’s terrible, it really is.”
Both Teigen and Stimson said they have had numerous possessions stolen, including bicycles.
They understand what drives the night people - the thrill of the treasure hunt coupled with the craving for drugs - but they don’t approve.
“I know the job rate’s down, but people should have respect for themselves and not go through people’s Dumpsters,” Teigen said.
“The police are smarter than they look, and they will catch you,” Stimson said. “They caught me. I’m done running. Done with that kind of life.”
The prowlers’ shopping list is extensive.
“It’s like a black market out there,” Teigen said. “Everything’s worth something. One man’s garbage is another man’s treasure.”
“I had a mental list of people who were looking for a certain item, and if I’d find it I’d sell it to them or trade it for drugs,” Stimson said.
He said it’s surprising what people throw away.
“You name it, I found it - gold rings, gold necklaces - you’d be surprised how many girlfriends or fiancees get mad at a guy and chuck all their stuff,” he said. “I’ve found brand-new clothes with tags still on them, computers, TVs, power tools, VCRs, stereos. I’ve found it all.”
Both men raided commercial and residential trash bins, activity that was made illegal in March by Longview city ordinance as a way to combat identity theft.
“Goodwill was a really good place to go,” Stimson said, reporting that he obtained home furnishings there to replace items he’d sold for drugs. “There was no food waste, no icky stuff. It was a free-for-all.”
Teigen said that many of the night people harvest scrap metal and wire to resell to recyclers.
“They call it ‘scrapping,’” he said. “They go down alleys, scoping out people’s back yards for aluminum wheels, copper, scrap metal, old radiators, anything that’s worth money.”
Teigen said the bicyclists are at it 365 days a year.
“I know a guy, this is how he makes his living,” he said. “He does it all night long. Snow, rain, sleet, hail, he’s always doing it. He gets aluminum sheet metal. ... I don’t think he ever sleeps, because what he spends the money on is drugs.”
Most of the bikers haul the loot in backpacks, he said.
“Even the backpacks came from the Dumpster,” he said. “And a lot of bikes are stolen. People always try to upgrade their bikes.”
Did the ordinance against trash bin-diving change anything?
“It doesn’t make no damn difference,” Stimson said. “People don’t care. They have no regard for the law - I never did.”
Alleys are the busiest thoroughfares for nighttime bicyclists, giving rise to an unspoken code of ethics.
“When I was doing it, it was kind of respected by the other night people, if you seen somebody in an alley you was about to go down, you’d keep going until you found an empty alley,” Stimson said.
Some of the bicyclists work in twos and threes, communicating via walkie-talkies, said Detective Sgt. Dan Jacobs of the Longview Police Department.
Kelso and Longview city ordinances require that bicyclists who ride after dark have a white headlamp attached to the bike and a red taillamp or rear reflector that’s visible from 500 feet. Some night people ignore the law; others use flashlights.
“They see the police, they turn the flashlight on, but when the police aren’t in view, they turn the flashlight off,” said Kelso Police Sgt. Doug Lane. “I arrested a subject who was riding up and down the street and he took his flashlight-headlamp and was looking in a car. He’d ride further, pull up to a van, look inside the van, then put the lamp in the handlebar area as though he was trying to be legal after hours.”
During the day, bicyclists with bad intentions often cruise through neighborhoods while the owners are at work, seeing what valuables have been left outside or are visible through windows.
Bicyclists bent on vehicle prowling, day or night, can easily see valuables in an unattended car.
“It’s an easy height to take a view,” Jacobs said. “You don’t have to ride fast. People don’t pay attention - you’re riding a bike through a parking lot, big deal. If you did that in a car, people would get angry with you, but you’re less conspicuous on a bike.”
And if pursued, a bicyclist can sometimes give police the slip.
“There’s no doubt that people who flee on bikes have an advantage,” Lane said. “They can go where a car can’t go - cut through parking lots, alleyways, between houses.”
Many are driven by drugs.
“A lot of this stuff that I found, I would go straight to my drug dealer and trade them off,” Stimson said.
And many of the bicyclists “are running a bunch of drugs,” Teigen said. “I used to do it on my bicycle. It’s a totally different world.”
Sgt. Lane said that drug-runners have found that not only does a bicycle make trafficking easy, it’s not a hardship if police confiscate the transportation.
“If you make an arrest for trafficking, it’s a lot cheaper to have a bicycle seized than a car,” he said. “There’s no impound fee on a bike.”
Both Teigen and Stimson were hooked on methamphetamine and are in treatment programs. Although he’s only 33, Stimson said his 18 years of meth use have given him the body of an old man.
“Meth has taken a toll on my body,” he said. “I walk with a cane. It deteriorates bones on a person’s body. It hurts.”
Teigen said, “I wouldn’t wish this problem, this sickness, on my worst enemy.”
Police reports show that a large number of arrests for drug possession, burglary, vehicle prowling, theft and other crimes began with a routine bicycle-safety stop.
“If they don’t have proper equipment, we can ID the bicyclist and we can write a ticket,” Jacobs said. “Part of our job is to make sure they’re safe.”
Police are careful to make sure a bicyclist is riding unsafely or behaving suspiciously before making a stop, not wishing to target recreational bicyclists or commuters.
“Just because you see a bike rider in the middle of the street at 1 in the morning, that in and of itself isn’t necessarily suspicious,” Lane said. “It’s when they go from vehicle to vehicle, or pull up into a driveway, or weave in and out through parked cars in a parking lot - that’s the unusual behavior.”
Police can also question a bicyclist if a citizen has reported suspicious behavior. Neighborhood vigilance is an invaluable aid to police, Jacobs and Lane said. They recommend that citizens keep an eye out for strangers and unusual behavior and call 911 to report suspicious activity.
Melody Cheshire, who’s home all day, keeps an eye on her Columbia Heights neighborhood. One recent morning she spotted a strange bicyclist pedaling into driveways and looking at houses as if to see if anyone was home. She sometimes warns off suspicious people herself, and other times calls 911.
“We’re always watching,” she said. “I don’t want anyone hurting our elderly neighbor over here.”
Besides being watchful, Teigen has increased his home security. He has installed motion detectors and intends to build a fence so he can keep his dogs outside at night. He locks everything up and checks again before he goes to bed.
Stimson is more cynical about preventing theft.
“I don’t think a person can,” he said. “That’s my opinion. Unless they sleep with their things. If it’s not nailed down or screwed to the floor and a person wants it bad enough, they’re going to get it.”
But Stimson, Teigen and the police agree that keeping possessions out of plain view will deter many thieves.
“Keep your things locked up inside,” Stimson said. “If a person can’t see it from the outside, they don’t know it’s there. And if you have something of value in your vehicle, put it in the trunk. At home, lock it in the shed or bring it inside. If it’s in the garage, make sure you have it secured so nobody can get into it. If they can’t see it, they’re going to leave it alone.”