Jake Gillum, stalks his bike thief, grows scruff for a disguise to set a police trap
Jake Gillum, a now scruffy, 28-year-old Oregon man, who describes himself as blue collar, according to Digital Trends, found that his 2009 Fuji Team road bike had been stolen.
Jake Gillum screenshot of YouTube video
He began plotting to get his bike back, but first, he would start growing out his beard to look tougher and older, he said.
Gillum contacted the using a phone app to make the call appear to be from Seattle and not Portland, where the bike was stolen.
Gillum’s detailed plan: the two would meet in Seattle’s upscale University Village mall and as Gillum stalled the alleged thief by asking questions, his friends would call the police. He would wear running shoes, thick Carhartt pants and a sweatshirt to look bigger.
The police would arrive, the bad guy would get arrested and Gillum would get his bike back.
A slight bike chase and some civil confrontation were reality as Gillum filmed the meeting.
“I would like you to apologize,” Gillum says in the video.
“For what?” the alleged thief asks.
“For stealing my bicycle.”
The alleged thief, Craig Ackerman, 22, does not apologize. Later he claims he bought the bike from Craigslist, knowing it was stolen.
“It’s not illegal to buy stolen stuff. I looked it up, dude,” Ackerman tells Gillum.
“Well you’re in possession of stolen property and you’re going to jail,” Gillum shoots back.
“You don’t go to jail for that! You got it back, dude.”
“Dude, you go to jail.”
“For what?”
“For stealing my bike.”
“I didn’t steal it!”
“You stole it.”
“I didn’t.”
And so on, until the police arrive, the alleged thief is apprehended. The case has not yet been referred to the King County Prosecutor’s Office, according to spokesman Dan Donohoe.
