A Bainbridge couple used a bike thief’s ‘own tricks’ to lure him into a police sting in Portland this week.

To read the story, click here.

There’s more to the story than I had room for in the paper, such as how the victims, Robert and Hadley Hill, figured out where the crook lived before they and team of undercover cops busted him outside Powell’s bookstore on Monday. Also not in the story is Hills’ advice for Craigslist shoppers. You can also find that below.

Web sleuths
After stealing the $2,700 Cervelo racing bike on Friday, 24-year-old Jason Adam McDonald of Tacoma posted the bike on Portland’s Craigslist for $3,000. Tipped off to the thief’s ad by a sharp-eyed Craigslist shopper, the Hills not only recognized their bike, they also recognized the tree it was leaning against.

“We saw the tree and the area around it and realized that we used to walk our dog in that park every day,” Hadley said. The Hills recently moved to Bainbridge from a house in Tacoma that is a block from the park pictured in the ad.

The family also just happened to be in Tacoma visiting friends when they got word of the new ad.

“I went straight to the tree and looked up the picture on my blackberry, and was lining (McDonald’s) pictures up with where I was standing,” Robert said. I said ‘Hadley, I’m looking at the exact same scars on the tree.”

The revelation was a bit creepy for Hadley, who said her family didn’t know McDonald before the theft.

“I just about hit the floor,” she said. “The bike, the thief and the victims were within a few blocks of each other.”

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