Bridgetown man remanded after pleading guilty to stealing a bicycle and pump

After ‘borrowing’ a bicycle without permission, a Bridgetown resident said he “stooled himself” when the police were ‘brought’ for him.

Arnell Liverpool of Bridgetown, who speaks with an American accent, spoke and behaved energetically when he appeared before the Serious Offences Court yesterday.

Liverpool, dressed in a ripped shirt, and jeans with one leg pushed up to his knee, pleaded guilty to breaking into the garage of Robert Fitzpatrick as a trespasser and stealing one red and silver ‘trek’ bicycle, valued at $800, and a tyre pump valued at $25. However, these items belong to Julian Benjamin of Peruvian Vale.

The owner of the bicycle was keeping it at Fitzpatrick’s, his employer’s, garage momentarily. He left his bicycle on January 18, but on January 19, he was called, and informed that the defendant was seen riding his bike along the Bridgetown Public Road. Benjamin went in search of his bicycle, which was no longer at the garage and was missing.

Liverpool was nabbed with the bike in an area of Lowmans Windward later that day.

The defendant started by explaining that he was a “good friend” of the Fitzpatricks, and his cousin had a house on the opposite side of the street. “I always used to go up in the yard and it’s just to say hello,” he continued, and added, “So that’s what I did that day.”

They (the Fitzpatricks) weren’t there, he said, and after calling out to see if Robert Fitzpatrick was home, he told himself, “So I saw the bicycle, I say I might just take it for a ride.”

Later in his mitigation, he said, “I’m sorry that I did that but I never try to confiscate the bike to keep it…personally for my own…convenience.”

“So when were you going to carry back the bike?” Chief Magistrate Rechanne Browne-Matthias countered.

“Well I was actually on my way coming back down, when I was actually coming back down I saw Mr Fitzpatrick pulled up right beside me,” Liverpool replied, recalling also that Fitzpatrick was with Officer Forde, and Corporal Jack.

“I got so hesitant, I said to myself, I can’t believe Robbie brought police for me, I actually stool my, my pants,” the defendant said.

“But he…when Mr Fitzpatrick leave his things in his garage, he expects to come and get them there,” Browne-Matthias persisted.

She informed the defendant that she was adjourning the matter to today, to check if he had a criminal record, as the police officer had said he did. At first the defendant did not understand, but when he did, he responded, “Oh! No.no.no. I haven’t!,” emphatically.

“The police said yes. You say no. Since he said yes, I want him to bring why he said that,” the magistrate told him.

Liverpool was remanded for a night.