Photo: Stock Image
One of the most personally aggravating consequences of compliance with the precepts of “going green”—riding a bicycle instead of driving a piston-powered, gas-guzzling, fume-spewing motor vehicle for short commutes—is the ease with which a bicycle can be stolen. It doesn’t really matter how thick the chain or how stout the pole you lock your bike to; a serious bike thief only needs a brief moment to overpower any device and be on his merry way, rolling down the avenue with little chance of law enforcement imposing any consequences for the crime.
That may all be coming to an end with the tactic recently used by a student at UCSB who reported his bike stolen from a locked rack on the university campus. According to UCSB Campus Police spokesman Lt. Matt Bowman, his department was given “information from a student who used a tracking device” to locate his stolen bike. Working with SBSD detectives and using data transmitted by the student’s AirTag, the purloined wheels were tracked to a storage facility in the City of Santa Barbara.
On Tuesday October 10th, detectives made contact with the holder of the storage facility unit’s key, 42-year-old Jason Kirby, a resident of nearby Goleta. Inside the storage unit rented by Kirby, the cops discovered “17 other bicycles,” all of which had recently been reported as stolen from the university campus. Along with the hot bikes, cops discovered “drugs, drug paraphernalia, furniture, and burglary tools.”
Kirby was taken into custody and transported to Santa Barbara County Jail, where he was booked on possession of stolen property, possession of controlled substances, and grand theft.
