James Clayton’s home raided by police for stolen bike parts
Austinite James Clayton was arrested and charge with felony bike theft on Tuesday. Image courtesy of ATXBS.com
Jason at ATXBS has broken a story about the police raid and arrest of James Clayton, a local Austin cyclists that has been accused of rampant bike theft. The Travis County Sheriff’s Booking Records indicate that Clayton is being charged with 2nd Degree felony for burglery of a home and State Jail felony for theft between $1500- $20,000. There is also an out of state felony charge with no additional information. Based on Jason’s reporting, Clayton was running a bicycle chop shop out of his home.
Bike thefts have been on the rise, and Jason has been bird dogging this with his Stolen Bike Registry. If you’ve had a bike stolen recently, contact APD. They are currently trying to match up bikes from this raid with their owners.
This is good news, but you still need to lock your bike properly.
UPDATE:
The Austin Police Department has put out the following statement:
(Thanks for keeping us up to date, Jason):
Yesterday (February 3rd) detectives with the Austin police department executed 2 search warrants on James Clayton’s residence as well as a storage unit that he was renting. At both locations they recovered a large amount of property, some of which has already been linked to crimes committed locally. Yesterday he was arrested on 4 counts, 1 of which was burglary of a residence in Travis County, and the other 3 counts were for larceny theft of bikes in Maricopa County, AZ. This morning a felony theft charge was filed on Mr. Clayton with regards to some of the recovered property. Add that to the previous 4 felony charges, and that’s a grand total of 5 felonies with more anticipated as they process the property.
If you are a friend of acquaintance of James Clayton and believe you have been victimized in some way, please contact Detective Scott Askew with the Austin Police Department. Here is his information:
Detective Scott Askew - 512-974-5978
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on Feb 4th, 2009 at 12:16 pm
is this the guy that someone posted up about in craigslust?
on Feb 4th, 2009 at 12:17 pm
Yes.
on Feb 4th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
never mind i read all the links and yes this is the douchebag
on Feb 4th, 2009 at 2:29 pm
In May 2006 I had a bike stolen from the Austin Doubletree. I had suspicions that the valets were involved and 6 months later, I found my Yeti on Craigslist in Austin. I couldnt get the PD to do anything about it. but after setting up my own sting and telling the PD that I was a concealled permit holder and would be getting my bike back as Texas code allows one to recover thier own stolen property, they actually decided to act and met the guy one Jonathon Ellis. I recovered my bike and heading back to Dallas I went by the Austin doubletree and what did I find out? The valet used to work there as did his brother. I got my bike back but the Austin DA refused to press the charges because he didnt think that posession of the property and employent at the theft location was evidence enough. Mr. Ellis thumbed his nose at the authorities and they let him. My case was #07-5025406