Cops Stop Chop Shop

On July 30, the former home of famed Old Portland punk bar Slabtown was raided by the Portland Police Bureau, Bike Portland reports. The target: a chop shop suspected of processing hundreds of stolen bikes. 

Officer David Sanders, a member of the PPB's Bicycle Theft Task Force, told Jonathan Maus of Bike Portland, that the PPB had been receiving reports of bike thefts in the apartments above Slabtown for around two years, with activity ramping up after the bar closed for good at the end of 2014. Although numerous tips had been received, the PPB never gathered enough evidence to obtain a warrant or an excuse to enter the building to make a bust, despite the location's reputation as a haven of thieves and drug dealers.

This all changed when, during a routine patrol, Officer Sanders came upon the property's owners as they were leaving the building. The owners just so happened to be having a problem with squatters trespassing, and confirmed that the building was full of bikes and parts. Sanders was finally granted access to the building and discovered an extremely organized and entrenched chop shop: dozens of frames, baskets of parts such as cast-off water bottle holders and bike lights, and even a bike painting station were amongst the ill-gotten loot found at the former bar.

Two skeevy chop shop types were found hiding in the den of iniquity and were arrested on outstanding warrants. While Office Sanders believes that the chop shop was run by a known street gang, he does not think that a major bike theft ringleader will be pinned to the shop. 

The raid ultimately netted two trucks full of stolen bikes and parts, with as much of the high end loot being sent to the PPB's property division for processing as possible. If your $5,000 carbon-framed road bike was cruelly taken from you in the night, now is the time to contact the PPB to see if the good officer rescued it. 

The building has now been secured, but as expected, someone has already tried to get back in. There's something larger at work at Slabtown, and it's not just a bike theft ring. It's the spirit of Old Portland, wheelie-ing off into the sunset on a steel-framed Frankenstein, refusing to be tamed.

WWeek 2015