Several days ago, one of our customers came in to tell us this event that happened to him recently while riding bikes in Berkeley.
On Saturday May 15th, he was riding a trail behind the UC Berkeley campus, when he was stopped by a crazed hiker furnishing an ice pick. The crazed hiker attempted to slice the tire and potentially attack him. In attempt to defend himself, our customer raised a fist and was going to knock the deranged hiker out. The said hiker replied with, "you aren't going to hit a guy twice your age are you?", and the cyclist decided not to but replied with, "no, but I'm going to go contact the UC police". The cyclist headed down the hill and then reported to the UC police, the encounter he just had. Having no idea the name of the crazy hiker, he put in the report with the police and they seemed to know who this said hiker was.
Several days later, the cyclist was called into the UC Berkeley police station to pick the hiker out of a line up. He picked out Mr. V right away, and after he left the line up room, ANOTHER cyclist came in to pick him out of the line up for yet another similar situation.
Mr. V was apprehended and arrested, and is currently facing charges for several accounts of furnishing a weapon and false imprisonment. The police are urging anyone else who has had similar situations to please come forward and file a report. When the cyclist asked the policeman if he was going to site him for riding the trail, the policeman replied with "no, we are not enforcing the use of the trail, and by the way there is no official ruling about bicycles on that trail".
Here is a link to the UC police log for that day so you can revel in a victory for the Norcal mountain bike community!
http://police.berkeley.edu/bulletins/05152010Page2.htm
On Saturday May 15th, he was riding a trail behind the UC Berkeley campus, when he was stopped by a crazed hiker furnishing an ice pick. The crazed hiker attempted to slice the tire and potentially attack him. In attempt to defend himself, our customer raised a fist and was going to knock the deranged hiker out. The said hiker replied with, "you aren't going to hit a guy twice your age are you?", and the cyclist decided not to but replied with, "no, but I'm going to go contact the UC police". The cyclist headed down the hill and then reported to the UC police, the encounter he just had. Having no idea the name of the crazy hiker, he put in the report with the police and they seemed to know who this said hiker was.
Several days later, the cyclist was called into the UC Berkeley police station to pick the hiker out of a line up. He picked out Mr. V right away, and after he left the line up room, ANOTHER cyclist came in to pick him out of the line up for yet another similar situation.
Mr. V was apprehended and arrested, and is currently facing charges for several accounts of furnishing a weapon and false imprisonment. The police are urging anyone else who has had similar situations to please come forward and file a report. When the cyclist asked the policeman if he was going to site him for riding the trail, the policeman replied with "no, we are not enforcing the use of the trail, and by the way there is no official ruling about bicycles on that trail".
Here is a link to the UC police log for that day so you can revel in a victory for the Norcal mountain bike community!
http://police.berkeley.edu/bulletins/05152010Page2.htm