5 SUSPECTS ARRESTED IN COPS' BIKE STING.

Byline: Charles F. Bostwick Staff Writer

PALMDALE - Five people were arrested Thursday in an anti-theft sting in which sheriff's deputies left an expensive bicycle at a park, on a sidewalk, outside liquor stores and elsewhere and watched to see whether anybody would take it.

Four men, ages 20 to 58, were arrested on suspicion of grand theft and a 34-year-old woman on suspicion of receiving stolen property over the 4 1/2-hour operation, officials said.

``When you find something, you can't just claim it's yours,'' said Sgt. Kyle Bistline, who leads the Palmdale Partners Against Crime Unit.

The mountain bicycle, worth nearly $3,000, was taken twice from Courson Park and once from the sidewalk outside the Palmdale Playhouse, next door to the Palmdale sheriff's station. In some other locations, it was left alone, Bistline said.

In one case, a man picked up the bicycle and put it in the back of his pickup truck. When deputies stopped him, he said he was driving it to the sheriff's station to turn it in. He was not arrested.

Burglaries and thefts increase every holiday because there are more opportunities for thefts, Bistline said.

``During the holidays, you've got a lot of people who are opportunistic burglars,'' Bistline said. ``You've got people walking across parking lots with bags of gifts. You've got cars full of gifts.''

The bicycle sting was part of one of the Partners Against Crime Unit's regular ``saturation'' patrols. Including the bicycle sting arrests, the unit arrested 15 people Thursday.

Six of the arrests came at an apartment complex on East Avenue R where deputies went looking for a man wanted on an arrest warrant.

That man wasn't home, but deputies noticed graffiti around the complex and started asking questions, Bistline said. That resulted in the arrests of two men, ages 19 and 20, and a teenage boy on suspicion of felony vandalism.

The three are suspected of painting other graffiti around Palmdale, Bistline said.

A man and woman who came out of the apartment where deputies had gone looking for the first man were arrested after they interfered as deputies were talking to one of the graffiti suspects, Bistline said. The woman, 19, was also arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs.

A 44-year-old man was arrested at the apartment after deputies checked his identification and found out he was wanted on fraud warrants from Iowa and Florida.

Other arrests were for fraud, burglary and on traffic warrants.