Looking for the Bicycle Thief
No one had ever stolen a police bike before. “We’re working on this now,” Sergeant Joe Andruzzi, who heads the bicycle unit, told the Sun-Times. “We are definitely following through on some information we have.” The paper concluded, “Andruzzi said officers were spreading word among bicycle messengers because they might spot the [bikes] on the street.”
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At that point, Morell says, two other officers pulled up on their bikes. “One of the cops starts searching through my bag to see if I have any deliveries,” he says. The municipal code says that “every licensee [bike messenger company] shall supply each bicycle operator” with a helmet. It doesn’t, however, require the messengers to wear the helmets. “Technically the cops can’t cite me for not wearing the helmet so long as I have a helmet with me–which I do,” says Morell. “The law doesn’t say anything about regular bike riders–they don’t even have to wear a helmet. So I guess the cop was looking through my bags to see if I was still on the job.”
Morell says he rides a track bike, which doesn’t have conventional handlebar brakes. “A lot of messengers have them–to stop, you simply stop pedaling,” he says. “They’re not dangerous if you know how to use them. And I know how to use them–I’ve had a track bike for over a year. Obviously I stop it all the time.”
Randy McDonough, also a messenger, says two officers told him they thought the bike thief was a messenger. “I was standing out by the Thompson Building downtown with some other messengers when two cops came up,” he says. “They showed me a mug shot of the guy who they say stole their bikes. They told me his name and his alias, and they asked if I knew him or had seen him around. I’ve never seen the guy. His name doesn’t even sound familiar. They told me that they’re going on a witness’s statement–that some witness saw that the thief had a messenger’s bag.”
If the ensuing comments were any indication, most of the attendees were happy with life in Daley’s city. “The city never smelled so sweet–all those flowers and trees,” purred one citizen. “Thank you, your honor. Thank you, Park District.” After similar preambles, most speakers eventually got around to their complaints–high taxes, overcrowded schools, not enough parks.
