by Liz Mullen
A crackdown in case of egg-tossing e-bikers
After complaints of teenagers on e-bikes throwing eggs at vehicles and causing other kinds of trouble, the Hermosa Beach Police Department on Friday evening, February 7, initiated a crackdown. They stopped 22 e-bike riders and cited nine of them. HBPD also impounded four e-bikes from the youths, according to HBPD Officer Keaton Dadigan.
“We have a municipal code which allows officers to impound e-bikes if they are being ridden in a reckless manner,” Dadigan said.
“In all of those cases the juveniles were riding their bikes in a way that was considered reckless — that could be blowing stop signs, doing wheelies in a crowded area, riding without bike lights during darkness,” Dadigan said.
The 22 e-bikers who were stopped were under the age of 18. Most live in the Beach Cities, but some were from Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes and Torrance.
The teen e-bike riders who were stopped but not cited were given warnings, Dadigan said. HBPD has been conducting e-bike safety education on an ongoing basis.
Residents have complained to the HBPD about teens on bikes throwing eggs at cars almost every weekend for the last two months.
“So we asked all of the kids that we stopped to open up their backpacks to see if there were any eggs,” Dadigan said. “We did not locate any eggs on any of these kids,” he said, adding that it didn’t mean these particular teens were not the ones hurling eggs. They just may have not had eggs on them at the time they were stopped by police.
HBPD officers found one teen carrying gasoline in a plastic water bottle and another carrying burglary tools. They also found evidence that solved the mystery of stolen spotlights off of trucks in Hermosa Beach.
As previously reported, at least four trucks in Hermosa have had the lights, commonly known as Baja spotlights, stolen in the overnight hours.
On Friday night, one male teen e-biker “physically gave us a clue that he had these spotlights at his house,” Dadigan said. When his parents were called to pick him up, officers asked if they could go to the house. The parents agreed and officers found multiple spotlights at the e-bike rider’s home.
HBPD is still conducting its spotlight investigation. Detectives don’t believe the teen was acting alone. “Our suspicion is he’s working with other juveniles and they are selling them or putting them on their bikes or giving them away,” Dadigan said.
Dadigan has previously told the Easy Reader that officers in patrol cars generally do not pursue teens that flee on e-bikes because the e-bikes can weave through and around traffic, which makes such pursuits difficult and dangerous.
However, during this particular enforcement operation, undercover officers were able to alert officers on motorcycles about e-bike violations and the motor officers were able to chase the bikers down.
HBPD posted the results of its e-bike crackdown on its social media and received an overwhelmingly positive response. Its post on Facebook, alone, received over 600 likes. It’s the biggest public response HBPD has had to a social media post.
“We’ve even been getting phone calls to the police station praising this type of enforcement,” Dadigan said. “I think, quite frankly, some of the residents are fed up with some of the things that the juveniles are doing. For example, throwing eggs at their cars, stealing their lights and riding unsafely in general.”
Gun shots and shell casings in Manhattan
Manhattan Beach Police Department officers are investigating an incident in which multiple gunshots were fired — but no one was apparently harmed — as well as two residential burglaries in the city.
MBPD officers who were conducting a traffic stop on Sepulveda Boulevard at about 11 p.m. on Jan. 30 heard multiple gunshots coming from the residential area to the west. At the same time, MBPD dispatch received multiple calls about the shots.
Residents heard the guns in the area of the 1400 block of Oak Avenue and the 1400 block of Elm Avenue.
Working on foot and at night, officers looked for, but were unable to find evidence of a shooting on Pine, Elm or Oak avenues, from Sepulveda to 17th Street.
The next day, however, on Jan. 31, a resident found shell casings on the 1400 block of Oak Avenue. The MBPD K9 dog Rio, who can detect firearms and explosive devices, was brought in to search the area. Damage from what appeared to be a bullet was found in a nearby construction site.
MBPD officers contacted nearby residents and did not find any who suffered a gunshot wound. The officers sought and received statements from local residents and business owners. They also requested any video from that area around the time of the shooting.
“It is unusual to hear shots fired in Manhattan Beach,” MBPD Sgt. Andy Abreu told the Easy Reader. “Discharging a gun in the city of MB is against the municipal code 4.84.010,” Abreu said. An investigation by MBPD is ongoing.
MBPD detectives are also investigating two residential burglaries involving window smashes– one that occurred on Jan. 30 and another that occurred on Feb. 1.
On Jan. 30, at about 7:40 p.m., MBPD officers were called to the 1200 block of 8th Street. The residents had left their home at about 6:45 p.m. and when they returned less than an hour later, they saw two suspects leaving their home and getting into a black SUV.
The residents found their bedrooms ransacked. The burglars, apparently, propped up a bench in the backyard and climbed to the second story where they smashed a glass door to enter the home.
On Feb. 1, a home on the 1700 block of 6th Street was also burglarized. In this case, four suspects entered the home by smashing the living room window. They stole jewelry and handbags and drove away in a white SUV.
Real hold-up with simulated gun
A woman was robbed in Redondo Beach as she was getting out of her car by a man who simulated that he had a gun.
The robbery occurred on the afternoon of Jan. 30 on the 100 block of Torrance Boulevard. The man who made the threatening gesture stole the woman’s backpack, credit and debit cards, cash and keys.
He drove off in a black Honda sedan. ER