A teenage dirt bike rider was arrested in San Francisco on Sunday after trying to give California Highway Patrol officers the slip when he was seen riding recklessly.
The encounter began around 4:45 p.m. when CHP officers spotted between eight and 10 dirt bike riders on San Francisco streets. They stood out because they were ignoring stop signs, running red lights, hopping onto curbs, blocking traffic, and riding without helmets, the CHP San Francisco division wrote on its Facebook page.
When officers tried to stop the riders, they took off. Patrol units did not chase the riders because that would have put other drivers and pedestrians at risk, the CHP said. But a CHP aircraft, using a high-powered camera, filmed the group’s “lawless activities,” officers said.
One man, later identified as 19-year-old Ronet Sanidad, was particularly worrisome to the CHP, officers wrote, so the aircraft followed him to Gould Street and Paul Avenue. He was recorded hiding his bike behind a vehicle in a grassy area and sprinting across the road, where he tried to crawl beneath a parked car, the CHP said.
The aircraft helped direct officers to Sanidad and he was arrested. The teen's motorcycle was also impounded after the CHP found that its vehicle identification number had been changed, according to the CHP Facebook page.
Sanidad has been booked into San Francisco County Jail. He faces a litany of charges, including felony reckless evading, conspiracy to commit a crime, and tampering with a vehicle identification number, officers said.
