Longview doctor suspected in bike thefts called 'smooth operator'
Saturday, February 23, 2008 6:34 AM PST
By The Associated Press
Printable version
E-mail this articleKELSO - Acquaintances of a Longview podiatrist and avid bicycle racer are puzzled by his arrest in a string of expensive bike thefts from Seattle to Utah.
Jacob J. Bos, 35, has pleaded innocent in Cowlitz County Superior Court to 12 counts of possessing or selling stolen bikes.
Out on $5,500 bail since Seattle police arrested him at his office in January, he has twice attempted suicide, once by trying to slit his wrists and drive his car into the Kalama River, and has been sent to a psychiatric hospital in Vancouver, Wash.
Neither his lawyer nor his father, who came from Texas to attend to his son, returned calls from The Seattle Times for comment.
Many of the thefts occurred when bicycles were taken for test rides and never returned. Formerly trusting operators of cycle shops in the region now go so far as to photograph customers before allowing test rides on bicycles than can cost thousands of dollars, The Times reported Friday.
In one case about a year ago, a man wearing hospital scrubs walked into Speedy Reedy Multisport, a triathlon supply store in the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle, introduced himself as Tony, an oncologist, and said he wanted to buy a bicycle right away.
The staff got him a $6,800 road bike and helmet for what was supposed to be a test ride on the Burke-Gilman Trail. He never returned but left a Tully's coffee cup with the name Jake written on it.
Police had the cup tested for DNA, which led to Bos, according to court files.
"This is like a brilliant kid who has another life," said Dr. Richard Kirkpatrick, who owns the medical clinic that employed Bos after he moved to Longview in early 2006. "Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde, it seems to me."
Bos, a native of Utah, had a degree from the New York College of Podiatric Medicine and a residency at a top hospital in Columbus, Ohio, according to the application he submitted for a podiatrist license. He was skilled and had a good bedside manner, Kirkpatrick said.
"He was an incredibly detail-oriented person," Kirkpatrick said. "He had professional satisfaction, solid income, a great girlfriend, a very satisfying professional-level hobby. Why would anybody do that?"
Less known was his record in Ohio. In January 2006, a month after getting his license in Washington state, Bos pleaded guilty to theft in Columbus for using another man's identity to buy furniture on credit and was sentenced to two years on probation. Two months later he paid $1,500 restitution and probation was terminated.
Bos never reported the conviction to the Washington state Health Department as required, spokeswoman Allison Cook said, but because of the case his DNA was in a national database that eventually provided the link to the coffee cup.
Meanwhile, he began entering bicycle races in Oregon and joined the Three Rivers bike club in Longview. He is accused of selling three stolen bikes to members of the club. The club's Web site has a picture of Bos holding a Cervelo R3, the bike that Seattle police say was taken from Speedy Reedy.
Officers who arrested Bos said they recognized the pedals on a road bike which he used for commuting and kept behind his desk as having come from the Cervelo R3. The frame turned out to have been stolen from another Seattle bike shop, Triumph Multisport, two days before police arrived.
Police also seized the three bikes he is accused of selling to club members, and officers say they found five stolen bicycles in his garage, one a $6,500 mountain bike from a shop in Utah, where Bos' ex-wife and two children live.
By then more high-end bicycles had gone missing on test rides - a $4,500 bike from a Tacoma shop in March, a $6,000 two-wheeler from a store in Portland in June and a $5,800 bike from a shop in Bothell, a Seattle suburb, in September.
Bos is even accused of getting away with another bicycle from Speedy Reedy, a $5,500 Scott Plasma, by talking co-owner Reed Sillers - who was not working during the first theft - into letting him take a test ride in December.
"He knew what he was going to do, and knew he had us completely snowed," Sillers said. "He was a smooth operator."
Merri B wrote on Feb 23, 2008 10:42 AM:
Misunderstood wrote on Feb 23, 2008 5:20 PM:
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If you think... wrote on Feb 24, 2008 8:58 AM:
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