Careful what you steal on the University of Texas at Arlington campus, there, thieves.
Six purloined bicycles so far during September prompted campus police to go all covert on criminals.
The force introduced two bikes equipped with GPS transmitters into the general bicycle population. Steal one, Mr. or Ms. Filcher, and appear on a tracking screen near assistant UTA police chief Rick Gomez.
Gomez also told the campus newspaper that officers posted warning signs at all bike racks so crooks can’t use a process of elimination to ID which racks contain the bait bikes.
“And if they do happen to steal one of our bait bikes, then hopefully we’ll catch them and be able to put them in jail,” Gomez told The Shorthorn.
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At least one student, Francisco Parra, questioned why police hadn’t stepped up bike surveillance before the GPS thing since multiple bikes were swiped the same day.
“I asked if bikes had been stolen before. The officer said yes, and in my head I was thinking, ‘Why haven’t you installed cameras before?’ ” Parra said, without explaining that you can’t really think with, say, your foot, although men, for centuries, have delegated the thought process to other parts of their anatomy.
Anyway, consider notice served, thieves. The UTA campus cops are on your two-wheeled trail.
Bruce Felps owns and operates East Dallas Times, an online community news outlet serving the White Rock Lake area. He had a 10-speed bike stolen once — she just wanted to ride once around Kiest Park, she said. Sucker.
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