{"id":624319,"date":"2026-05-05T05:43:57","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:43:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/624319\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T05:43:57","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T05:43:57","slug":"how-police-set-a-trap-for-illegal-dirt-bike-group","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/624319\/","title":{"rendered":"How police set a trap for illegal dirt bike group"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Oakland<\/p>\n

Oakland police recovered more than 70 dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles during an enforcement operation on the east side of the\u00a0Bay Bridge around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland Police Department\"Oakland<\/p>\n

Oakland police recovered more than 70 dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles during an enforcement operation on the east side of the\u00a0Bay Bridge around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland Police Department\"Oakland<\/p>\n

Oakland police recovered more than 70 dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles during an enforcement operation on the east side of the\u00a0Bay Bridge around 5:45 p.m. Sunday, May 3, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland Police Department<\/p>\n

The law enforcement operation that halted traffic Sunday night on the Bay Bridge<\/a>, scuttling evening plans and infuriating drivers, was the result of a months-long investigation into an illegal biking group, officials said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland police arrested nine people on suspicion of various misdemeanor and felony charges, including reckless driving and firearms possession, after surveilling and stopping a large group of people riding dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles, Oakland Police Chief James Beere said during a Monday news conference.<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

Authorities seized 77 dirt bikes and\u00a0ATVs after the riders dismounted and fled the scene on foot, jumping over fences and scattering in different directions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After monitoring the group throughout the day with drones and undercover officers, police determined that the far end of the Bay Bridge near Oakland was \u201cthe safest place\u201d to stop the group as it returned from San Francisco,\u00a0Beere said, but it was still \u201cpretty chaotic\u00a0\u2014 everyone did not just stop.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco Chronicle Logo<\/p>\n

Make us a Preferred Source to get more of our news when you search.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

An unknown number of riders escaped on their motorized vehicles, he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With more than a hundred officers involved in the operation,\u00a0Beere said police were focused on arresting people \u201cwe knew we could arrest safely,\u201d and those \u201cwe know were committing crimes.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not going to risk the participants\u2019 safety, the officers\u2019 safety or the general public\u2019s safety,\u201d\u00a0Beere said. \u201cWe have plenty of evidence to follow up on, and I\u2019m very confident there\u2019s going to be additional arrests.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

One person was taken into custody after jumping a fence and diving into the water. Police used force on one person during the operation, but no one was injured while being taken into custody,\u00a0Beere said, without elaborating on the use-of-force incident. Several people reportedly sustained injuries while fleeing.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland police also arrested two people Friday following a seven-month investigation for allegedly promoting a September 2025 sideshow<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Undercover officers began surveillance Sunday at an East Oakland park, where people unloaded dozens of dirt bikes and\u00a0ATVs in a staging area. Beere said the group then rode en masse to Lake Merritt, Berkeley and back into Oakland before crossing the bridge into San Francisco, drawing 911 calls and complaints from the community.\u00a0<\/p>\n

San Francisco Police Chief Derrick\u00a0Lew said the bike takeover lasted about 45 minutes in San Francisco, as riders swarmed streets downtown and in the Ingleside neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\u201cThey quickly overwhelmed intersections and caused great risk to public safety,\u201d\u00a0Lew said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oakland police coordinated with the San Francisco Police Department and California Highway Patrol to set a trap for the riders as they crossed back over the Bay Bridge toward the East Bay in the late afternoon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Law enforcement blocked all eastbound lanes on the bridge around 5:45\u00a0p.m. and re-opened them by about 7:30 p.m., causing a massive traffic back-up.<\/p>\n

Police loaded the\u00a0ATVs and dirt bikes on pallet trucks to remove them from the bridge and also towed the vehicles used to transport the illegal bikes into Oakland.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Officials said the operation was a collaborative effort meant to send a message that bridge takeovers and sideshows, a common nuisance across the region, will not be tolerated by police.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n

\u201cThis operation highlights our commitment to respond to the community complaints involving these people that are coming into our community, destroying our parks and holding our community hostage,\u201d\u00a0Beere said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Lew said SFPD seized over 140 vehicles connected to sideshows in the past year. In March, SFPD and CHP seized 85 bikes \u201cwhen riders attempted to take over the Bay Bridge,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to work with our partners and hold people accountable for these acts,\u201d\u00a0Lew said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Oakland police recovered more than 70 dirt bikes and all-terrain vehicles during an enforcement operation on the east…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624320,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[23,3805,3071,3,22178,5284,32904,21,19,22,20,25,24],"class_list":{"0":"post-624319","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-bay-area","10":"tag-crime","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-oakland","13":"tag-san-francisco","14":"tag-transit","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624319","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=624319"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624319\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624320"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}