Photo by Ryan Holloway.

Fulfilling the fantasy of any person whose had a bike swiped, a member of the local cycling team set up a police-involved sting operation to retrieve one of his stolen bikes.

In a very detailed blog post, Gripped Racing cyclist Jared Janowiak said three of his bikes were stolen from the parking garage of his apartment building in Fairfax, Va., as security footage confirmed. After checking Craigslist, Janowiak happily stumbled upon one of his bikes.

He contacted the seller, who asked him to come to D.C. But this was a problem: Fairfax County Police told Janowiak they couldn’t bust the alleged thief in D.C. He had to be lured into Virginia. Janowiak accomplished this through a complicated scheme that involved convincing the seller that Rossyln is actually part of D.C. now using fake maps and Washington Post articles. Kidding: He offered the seller more money.

Once he arrived near the scene of the July 11th sting, Janowiak flagged down an Arlington Police Department officer, who then became part of the operation. As video stealthily taken shows, the man was not too happy when the officer showed up to arrest him.

The seller claimed he had not stolen the bike, according to Janowiak:

When questioned, the seller said he serendipitously ran into a crackhead on the street selling this bike for a few hundred dollars. He bought it and listed it hoping to make a quick profit. The police and I were incredulous of this story; they assured me they’d investigate, and the guy would likely be put under pressure with threat of a sentence of transaction of stolen goods unless he comes clean.

Ah, the old “I bought it from a crackhead” story, which didn’t fly this time. According to Arlington Police Department public information officer Dustin Sternbeck, the suspect was charged with possession of stolen property with intent to sell, which is a class 5 felony. If convicted, the suspect could face one to ten years in jail, or up to 12 months of imprisonment and a fine of up to $2,500.

While Janowiak was reunited with his bike, he is still looking for the other two. The bikes’ photos can be seen at the bottom of this blog post.