Dash Down Diablo – Police Pursue Suspected Bike Thief Off The Mountain Saturday
Officers from several local law enforcement agencies converged on Mt. Diablo State Park after park officials interrupted a suspected bicycle thief practicing his trade at the Summit Visitor Center Saturday.
A park officer pursued the suspect’s Chevy S10 down the mountain and onto Castle Rock Road, where officers from Walnut Creek and Contra Costa County Sheriff’s Deputies took up the pursuit south on Castle Rock Road, the suspect – described thinly as a white male in his 50s wearing a hoodie – crashing through trail gates and past startled trail walkers, until he crashed near the Pine Canyon nature walk and apparently abandoned his truck.
Kurt Smith Photo (Biker looks back at abandoned truck.)
Several law enforcement vehicles, ill-equipped for an off-road pursuit, pulled up the area and officers surrounded the truck, calling for the suspect to come out. Before long, however, they realized that their suspect had abandoned the truck and taken off down one of the many trails in the area on his purloined bicycle.
Hiker Kurt Smith, in the area for a morning walk with friends, reported: “We were hiking and had to stop till they got the K9 to clear the car. The guy was long gone but he dropped his wallet so they will find him soon. How he got all the way back there is amazing…”
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Sounds like a good chase to me, maybe one of our local mountain lions will get the suspect. 108RS
We understand our local cougars don’t like bike thieves – too stringy.
….. plus spandex is hard to digest.
What kind of bike are we talking about?
Cannondale?
High end Cannondale road bike.
Unleash the drones!
find him?
What happening on Moraga Road in Orinda??? Jeep crash w power out/??
Hi… Vehicular assault on a couple of power poles, yes. With lights out for folks in the area.
I can’t believe WCPD (1) couldn’t intercept a perp descending Mt. Diablo (like, spike strips, roadblock and … maybe even LOCKING THE EXIT GATE!) and (2) lost a perp fleeing down a dead end country road in a steep canyon.
Bear in mind, this is a guy who was dumb enough to steal bikes atop a 4,000 foot peak with JUST ONE STEEP, NARROW AND CURVY egress on which to escape. Just amazing.
#Incompetence!
It all happened pretty fast… don’t believe they had time to call for the spikes.
Hmm. The 11-mile descent from the summit to the North Gate Entrance Station would take at least 15-minutes if he was averaging 45 mph. While theoretically possible, successful execution would test the skills of a trained race car driver in Porsche 911 and require miracle of physics for an aging delinquent in an S-10.
Let’s grant, arguendo, that this perp could average 30 mph down the mountain (still a charitable assumption). The constabulary had 22 minutes. It’s a narrow two lane road with no shoulder and a gate. How do you not secure the egress?
@Campo – there are actually 2 paved roads down, the sheriff did quickly respond and that’s why in this criminal mastermind’s brilliant plan he decided to off-road his truck ?. I think he was such a dumb-dumb and his moves were so unpredictable that this was unprecedented. ?♂️
Pure fear
Follow the wallet.