Mill Valley police book bicycle theft suspects

Two Santa Rosa residents were arrested in a bicycle theft case after sleuthing by a Mill Valley patrol officer, police said.

The mountain bike, which belongs to a youth, was reported stolen at about 6 p.m. Jan. 11 along East Blithedale Avenue just west of Camino Alto, the Mill Valley Police Department said. The bike is neon yellow and valued at about $8,000.

The officer who took the report remembered seeing a suspicious vehicle with no license plates before his shift started, and it had a yellow bike on the roof. The officer contacted residents in the neighborhood to see if they had surveillance images of the vehicle. One household did.

The department shared the information and the images with other law enforcement agencies. Police in Santa Rosa and Petaluma helped identify the vehicle and the suspects, and Santa Rosa police stopped them for an alleged traffic violation on Friday.

Police determined that the suspects still had the bike. Robert Joseph Benjamin Roberts, 48, and Jennifer Nicole Merchant, 47, were booked into the Marin County Jail on suspicion of grand theft and conspiracy. The bail amount was set at $10,000.

Neither suspect was in custody Saturday. They could not be reached for comment.

Roberts is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday in Marin County Superior Court. The court website lists no charges against Merchant.