Contact: Michael Lowry, Sergeant, Police Department, 303-492-7411 / michael.lowry@colorado.edu
On March, 20, 2014, University of Colorado Boulder Police arrested John William Samson III for felony theft related to high-end bike thefts on the CU-Boulder campus over the past year. This single theft charge combines seven separate bike thefts into a single class 4 Felony.
CU and Boulder Police Detectives collaborated to identify the additional thefts from campus which totaled $22,000. Samson was arrested at the Boulder County Jail, where he was already incarcerated on separate charges including similar thefts committed in the City of Boulder.
See below for the initial Boulder PD press release:
Boulder Police Release
Boulder Police detectives have been investigating a series of thefts of high-end bicycles from the downtown area and today, March 10, 2014, formally arrested the suspect, John William Samson III (DOB 10/04/1975). Samson was arrested at the Boulder County Jail, where he has been incarcerated on separate charges.
Samson faces 34 counts of Theft, one count of Third Degree Burglary, one count of Criminal Trespass and one count of Criminal Mischief. Twenty-nine of the charges are felonies.
Investigators believe Samson is responsible for the thefts of 43 bicycles from May 2013 until September 2013. The bikes are worth a total of approximately $147,000.00. The bicycles range in price from $700.00 to $9,000.00 each.
The majority of the thefts took place in the downtown business area during daylight hours. Most of the bikes were locked, either to bike racks or on vehicle racks. None of the stolen bikes have been recovered, and they have not shown up in area pawn shops.
Several bicycles were stolen from the campus of Boulder High School, including five bikes belonging to the Boulder High School’s mountain bike team. Those bicycles had been stored in a locked trailer and were taken during the Boulder flood.
Victims include local residents, people travelling through Colorado on vacation and at least one victim who had driven to Boulder for a bike competition, only to find his bicycle stolen the day before he was to compete. Victims are juveniles, students, professionals, a professor and an out-of-state fire fighter.
Brands of the stolen bikes include: Yeti, Santa Cruz, Transition, Titus, Felt, Scott, Specialized, Kona, Gary Fisher, Trek and Klein.
Samson is currently in jail, and his bond has been set at $100,000.00. Detectives are continuing to investigate.