Since rolling out its bait-bike program this past September, the Sacramento Police Department has been converting its roving decoy bicycle into arrests.

This month alone, police have recorded five bait-bike-related busts, all in the central area of the city. The latest occurred Sunday afternoon in a residential neighborhood near 53rd Street and Austin Way, when police say 44-year-old Fred Morales activated the bait bike’s sensor and was later found riding the stolen property.

A night earlier, police tracked its sensor to 21st and U streets, where they stopped and cuffed Joseph Palaca, 38.

On Tuesday, November 12, officers arrested someone for stealing equipment from a bait bicycle perched in the 3200 block of Fifth Avenue, ironically near the McGeorge School of Law. This was also the site of a nighttime November 6 theft that resulted in the arrest of 31-year-old Robert Gordon.

Each one was charged with possessing stolen property or other theft-related charges.

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