goatbike.jpeg
Oleg Stepanovich Plyushchev, 18, at left. Penelope the goat, at right.
(Portland Police Bureau)
Police arrested an 18-year-old Southeast Portland man Tuesday on accusations of stealing two bicycles and a goat named Penelope.
Sgt. Pete Simpson, a Portland Police Bureau spokesman, said detectives arrested Oleg Stepanovich Plyushchev after they learned he was attempting to sell a reportedly stolen bicycle on Craigslist.
Nicholas Carlson, 27, called police after he saw the bicycle stolen from his backyard in November advertised for sale on the website.
Detectives contacted Plyushchev and arranged to purchase the bicycle, along with a second bicycle Plyushchev had for sale.
Using the second bicycle's serial number, police identified it as one reported stolen from 71-year-old Dannelle Stevens. She told police the bicycle was stolen from her garage in the Sellwood-Moreland Neighborhood in mid-February.
Following his arrest, police discovered from a Clackamas County Sheriff's Office report that Plyushchev was a suspect in the August 2014 theft of a Nigerian dwarf goat.
Penelope was reported missing from a home in the 6800 block of Southeast 122nd Avenue on Aug. 4. Penelope's owner told police the goat, which was tethered and secured in the front yard, was taken between 3:30 a.m. and 12:45 p.m.
Four days later, Penelope was recovered by the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office at Geren's Farm Supply in Boring, where Plyushchev had allegedly put the animal up for sale on consignment.
Plyushchev was booked Tuesday night into the Justice Center Jail on three counts of first-degree theft and computer crime, a felony, Simpson said.
He was released on his own recognizance Wednesday, according to jail records.
-- Stuart Tomlinson
stomlinson@oregonian.com
503-221-8313
@ORweather