Bloomfield Township Bike Thieves Arrested After Returning to Crime Scene for More

Oakland County prosecutors are pondering whether to charge two Pontiac men who stole bicycles on display outside the Bloomfield Township Kmart earlier this month, police said.

Bloomfield Township police officers arrested the duo on the stolen bicycles in a neighborhood near the store off Telegraph Road shortly after noon on Aug. 13, according to reports.

Lt. Phil Langmeyer said officers responded quickly to the scene after store employees reported a second bike theft by the same suspect about an hour apart. The first incident was reported at about 11:30 a.m. after a man pulled up to the front curb in a full-size van, sized up the bicycles on display and loaded one into the vehicle.

He fled northbound on Telegraph before store security could intervene.

Langmeyer said that by 12:30 p.m., dispatchers received a second call from employees who saw the suspect again outside the store, this time on foot. With him was another man who also grabbed a bike.

"I don't know why they did it, but they just hit the store and decided to come back," he said. "The credit goes to the employees that stayed observant and stopped them from getting too far away."

The men, both in their 50s, were released pending formal charges for retail fraud.

Thief tries to take off with printer

Police are also trying to identify a man who tried to walk away from an office supply store with a printer that he didn’t pay for.

The man selected a printer from the display within the Staples outlet at about 6 p.m. on Aug. 23, and attempted to leave, police reports said. An employee confronted the man outside the store and retrieved the printer as the suspect fled to a vehicle nearby. He was last seen driving away in a black Lincoln Navigator. The suspect is described as black, 5-feet-11 inches tall and about 150 pounds. He is roughly 25 years old, reports said.

Anyone with information about either case is asked to contact the department's investigations division at 248-433-7752.