A homeless, middle-aged couple was arrested outside of the Hub on Thursday afternoon after plainclothes officers interrupted what they suspected was a bicycle theft.
University Police officers saw Donald Douglas Bass, 50, pull up on the seat of a blue mountain bike while his wife, 40-year-old Tammy Lynn Bass, acted as a lookout.
The couple noticed the officers and quickly tried to walk away. They were apprehended.
When questioned, the suspects gave different accounts on how they arrived and what they were doing on campus.
Donald Bass gave police permission to search his backpack. Inside they found three Allen wrenches, a bike pump, pliers, bolt cutters and a cut combination coil lock.
The couple was charged with loitering and prowling, a second-degree misdemeanor, and taken to the Alachua County Jail, according to the police report.
UPD also issued an Active Trespass Warning on the suspects, which means they can be arrested for trespassing if they are seen on campus, according to the UPD website.
A recent spike in bike theft on campus has prompted UPD to stage a plainclothes detail designed particularly to monitor bikes. The two suspects were the first arrested under this detail.
"We usually have 20,000 bikes on campus every day," Capt. Jeff Holcomb said. "And theft is the No. 1 crime on campus by far."
