Riding your bicycle in the dark is never a good idea, especially when you are attempting to transport a stolen computer on the back.

This is exactly what a 14-year old Langley boy was trying to do at approximately 9 p.m. on March 12, when he was pulled over by Langley Police Officer Leif Haugen for riding his bicycle without a light on Maxwelton Road, according to Haugen.

“The thing that really caught my attention was when the computer fell off his bike and he kept riding,” Haugen said, talking about the traffic stop.

Haugen said the teenager had a desktop computer “tower” unit strapped to the back of his bicycle with rope. He had been holding it up with a stick, but let it drop to the road after Haugen activated his lights.

“I walked up to the object and could see it was a computer tower,” he said.

According to Haugen, the teenager said a friend had given him the computer tower. It was later verified to be property of South Whidbey High School after a district employee came to the scene to identify it.

The teenager has had a class in the same classroom he allegedly stole the computer from, and is now facing charges of possession of stolen property. He was booked into the Island County Jail and later released to a parent, according to Haugen.

The arrest comes after another computer theft from a South Whidbey school. In a burglary reported March 28 at South Whidbey Primary School, three laptops and one desktop were stolen from a portable classroom near the back of school property, according to Island County Sheriff Cmdr. Mike Beech.

The computers were found at approximately 12:30 p.m. the same day in a garbage can at Dan Porter Park in Clinton. Ironically, the school reported the computers missing just minutes after they were found.

“We recovered them, photographed them and gave them back,” Beech said.

Anyone with any information about the thefts is urged to call the Island County Sheriff’s Office at 321-5111 or Langley Police Department at 221-4433.