Sun Bicycles
A Miami Sun trike, similar to the ones that were stolen.
After a police dispatcher ignored an early clue in a case of missing adult tricycles, a parks department employee took matters into his own hands — and tracked down $1,000 worth of stolen city goods.
City Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts said he will look into why a civilian police dispatcher disregarded a report of the stolen tricycles being pedaled in plain view down Orange Street hours after the theft.
The episode took place Saturday afternoon. I ended up seeing firsthand how in dealing with an under-the-radar crime, government bureaucracy can miss a signal — and then how a dedicated public servant can pick it up and run.
I got a phone call at 1:39 p.m. from Martin Torresquintero, the enthusiastic outdoor adventure coordinator for the city parks department. He called to report that 10 city-owned adult tricycles had been stolen from a city storage shed in Edgewood Park. The tricycles, which had been custom-made for senior citizens, are worth $5,000.
Former Westville Alderman Greg Dildine and Semi Semi-Dikoko of Friends of Edgewood Park had first noted the theft during a walk through the park around noon. They noticed that a shed at Coogan Pavilion had been broken into. A thief had apparently broken into a city tool shed in order to grab tools to cut the locks on the shed where the bikes were stored, Torresquintero said.
Melanie Stengel/ New Haven Register Photo
Parks dept. class rides the trikes in Edgewood Park last year.
The Miami Sun tricycles are low-riders designed for slow travel. Bought with money from the Rock to Rock festival, they were custom made in three colors: sparkling blue, red and mint green, Torresquintero said. They are “uncommon” vehicles fitted with baskets and parking brake. They look brand new: The final ones were assembled last year, right before the holidays.
Torresquintero circulated an email throughout the city at 2:54 p.m. Saturday asking folks to be on the lookout for the vehicles, which are used for senior citizen exercise classes. He said police, pawn shops and scrap yards had been advised of the theft.
“They are quite large and easily identified,” he wrote.
From The “99-Cent Store”
I had those words in mind when I drove south on Orange Street around 4 p.m. Saturday. There in the bike lane, I saw two adult men pedaling in front of me with what looked like scrap metal strapped into shiny rear baskets. As I got closer, I saw they were riding adult tricycles in sparkling red and blue.
At the intersection of Orange and Edwards, I pulled up my ‘94 Honda Accord next to the first trike rider, who had courteously stopped at the red light. I rolled down the passenger window.
“Nice ride!” I called out. He didn’t quite hear me.
“Where’d you get your ride?” I asked.
The man, who appeared to be in his 50s, happily shared that he bought his tricycle at “the 99 cent store at Derby and George.”
“You know how you can buy whole storage units” when people go into foreclosure? he explained. Someone had bought a storage unit and it turned out to be a “pallet” full of these tricycles. They were selling them at the 99 cent store. He told me I could get one there for cheap.
The light turned green and we both continued on our way. I called East Rock’s district manager, Lt. Thaddeus Reddish, to report that stolen city property was being pedaled down Orange Street. Reached on his cell on his day off, Reddish expressed concern but was unable to get to the scene. He suggested I call the main police number.
Dispatcher Drops The Clue
I called (203) 946‑6316, the police non-emergency number, at 4:14 p.m.
I said I was reporting a bicycle theft. (I thought “tricycle” might sound hard to believe.) Two people were riding stolen bicycles down Orange Street, I said.
“How do you know they’re stolen?” the civilian dispatcher responded, incredulous. “Did you see” the theft?
Her tone suggested she was not interested in pursuing the case.
I tried to explain that there was a theft of specialized city bicycles that morning, and I believed those were same vehicles I saw on Orange Street.
“Are you willing to wait” there until an officer comes? the dispatcher asked me.
Thinking back to the time my Honda was stolen from East Rock, I knew it can take hours for police to respond to a low-priority call. By that time, even at their slow pace, the tricyclists would be long gone. Running late, I said I wasn’t willing to wait.
I suggested an officer swing by Orange Street to intercept the stolen goods.
The dispatcher did not ask for any more information, such as the description of the riders or stolen merchandise or the direction of travel. I gave up and ended the call.
City CAO Smuts was asked Sunday about the missed opportunity.
“I’m very interested in looking into” how the dispatcher handled the call, Smuts said. “The theft of city property is definitely something that should have a response.”
Parks Dept. On The Case
After hanging up with police dispatch, I dialed the man who was spending his day trying to get the word out about the stolen trikes. Torresquintero picked up his city-issued cell. He said he couldn’t get there in time, but he sent a deputy to swing by Orange Street to try to make an interception.
Torresquintero said the deputy was not able to find the tricycle riders that time. He said he swung by the “99 cent store at Derby and George” and couldn’t find a dollar store there.
The parks department didn’t give up the hunt. Within the hour, a parks staffer had helped crack the case, in part. The staffer happened to be driving behind a pickup truck on George Street around 5:11 p.m., according to Torresquintero.
There, in the bed of the truck, he saw two of the tricycles.
By this time, a broadcast had gone out to all city and Yale cops to be on the lookout for unusual adult tricycles that had been stolen from the city. The call went out around 4:55 p.m.
The parks staffer, who didn’t want his name used in the story, followed the truck while calling in his location to police. A police cruiser followed and pulled over the pickup truck at State and Humphrey. The tricycles still had stickers on them that read Amity Bikes.
Asked where he got the loot, driver changed his story several times. Like the man I talked to, he said he got the trikes from a dollar store.
The purchase could not have been above board, Torresquintero later explained: There are only five specialized dealers of these tricycles in the state, and the last time anyone sold one of them was 10 years ago.
The man was charged with possession of stolen property. The trikes were returned to the city.
Though the story the suspect gave was similar, it sounds like he was a different man with different trikes from the ones I saw. The ones I saw were definitely among the 10 specially made for the city and stolen, though different from the two the staffer found, he said.
8 More Sought
Now Torresquintero is asking the public to help find those and the other tricycles. Eight are still missing. They are so large and slow-moving that they shouldn’t be hard to spot on the streets, he said. He said he’s asking everyone from garbage truck operators to block watches to keep an eye out.
Anyone with info can call Deputy Parks Director Bill Dixon at (203)627‑7744 or Martin Torresquintero at (203) 627‑4909.
Torresquintero said the tricycles have offered a new opportunity to senior citizens and people with disabilities who have trouble riding standard bicycles. One woman told him she “finally got motivated to exercise” because of the tricycle class.
“I’m disappointed” in the thefts, Torresquintero said. “Without them, I’m not going to be able to run this program.”
New Haven - big enough to have the vitality of a city; small enough that a reporter can apprehend stolen tricycles. Gotta love it. Can't wait to read the follow-up Trike-gate story.