Police seeking bike owner after 'brazen' theft suspect caught on camera grinding the lock

Suspected thief takes grinder to bike lock A suspected bike thief was caught on camera taking a power grinder to a lock in Vancouver.

Vancouver — It was brazen alright.

At a busy Vancouver’s intersection, in front of a steady stream of passersby, a man tried to free a locked bike with a grinder.

Two Vancouverites were immediately suspicious, after all the power tool was sparking as it cut into the metal. The pair pulled out a phone and began capturing on camera what Vancouver police are calling an attempted theft.

“Hey! Is that your bike, dude?” one of the Good Samaritans can be heard asking the man on video.

“Yeah,” he replies with conviction and carries on sawing.

“You’re not going to get a more brazen attempt at theft than what you’re seeing here," said Sgt. Aaron Roed of the Vancouver Police Department, describing Sunday evening’s incident.

The couple didn’t let up their questioning.

“Why is someone else’s helmet on there, dude?” asks one of the bystanders in the video.

“Because I brought a different helmet, because I got a ride here,” the man responds before nonchalantly changing the battery on the power tool.

An undercover officer noticed the couple confronting the man. He approached and then chased him around the block.

The suspect was caught.

“This guy was grinding away at this lock for an extended period of time, with no regard for whose it was, or people in the area,” added Roed.

Police called this excellent work by people in the community, saying it is with their help that an arrest could be made.

The VPD is now trying to track down the owner of the high-end bike.

“We don’t want anybody getting away with this,” urged Roed. “So if this is your bicycle in the video, we’re asking you to contact the Vancouver police.”