Victim catches thief using Internet

Posted at: 06/12/2009 10:37 PM | Updated at: 06/13/2009 7:27 PM
By: Cris Ornales, Eyewitness News 4; Matthew Kappus, KOB.com

The owners of the stolen bike recognized this photo on eBay and called police

When a thief stole two bikes worth more than $13,000, one man refused to be a victim. He turned to the Internet to catch the culprit.

John Ferisen runs a bicycle racing team out of El Paso, Texas and they often train in Albuquerque.

During a trip to the Duke City in April, the team's van was broken into and the expensive racing bikes were stolen.

"The frames are made of carbon, the parts are titanium and alloy, the tires are made with silk casings," Ferisen said.

Ferisen's team, Ten Speed Drive Racing, is an amateur team and the loss of $13,000 worth of bikes was a major blow. So the team pulled together to try and get the bikes back.

"Everybody on the team was constantly looking on eBay, on craigslist, the flyers on the bike shop," he said.

After two months and no sign of the bikes, they were starting to give up hope. But then they spotted a post by an Albuquerque man on eBay.

"We contacted Albuquerque police. Within 24 hours, they had an arrest," Ferisen said. "It was incredible. They were on top of it the whole time and we appreciate everything they did for us."

"In this case, the victim reached out and did a little bit of research on his own and my hat's off to him for doing so," APD spokesman John Walsh said.

APD detectives set up an undercover sting and busted Stanley Sanchez, 26, when he showed up to sell the bikes. That was enough for police to get a search warrant for Sanchez's northwest Albuquerque home.

Inside Sanchez's home, they found so much stolen property it took them three pages to list it all.

"He's looking at very significant time for his crimes," Walsh said.

Sanchez's girlfriend, Juana Vargas, was also arrested. Ferisen says his experience has not soured him on Albuquerque. He says the city is a great place to train and his team will be back soon.

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