Watch: Dirt biker pops wheelie and nearly crashes into Allentown police car

While popping a wheelie on an east Allentown street this weekend, a dirt biker nearly crashed into a police cruiser and tumbled off the bike after hitting a chain-link fence, a video posted by a resident showed.The 10-second video shows the dirt biker in a yellow shirt almost crash into the police cruiser in the 1500 block of East Tilghman Street, near the back of Ritter Elementary School.One police officer appears to warn the dirt biker who’s popping a wheelie for several seconds that he’s heading straight at the police cruiser. At the last second, the dirt biker rides to his right and crashes into the fence, the video shows.Allentown police Capt. Bill Lake said the incident happened at 4:35 p.m. Sunday. He said the officers on patrol saw two young men on dirt bikes, then circled back to the area to find one of the bikers pushing his bike. That person ran away, and the second biker began doing the wheelie in front of the officers, he said.That biker headed straight the cruiser, but avoided crashing into it and instead hit a chain-link fence, Lake said.A dirt biker popped a wheelie in front of police on East Tilghman Street in east Allentown on Sunday, June 23, 2019, then hit a fence and and tumbled off the bike. (Jenni Betancourt / Contributed photo/)That biker also ran away, after appearing to initially want to fight with the officer, he said. The riders have not been identified.“At the end of the day, we have two unregistered dirt motorcycles in custody,” he said.The woman who shot the video said it all began with three dirt biker riders riding recklessly in the 1500 block of Hanover Avenue, which is just south of Tilghman Street.Jeni Betancourt, who lives nearby, said the bikers in different-colored dirt bikes ― blue, yellow and green ― had been popping wheelies and riding into traffic on Hanover Avenue. When police arrived, they ducked onto the residential streets and alleys near Ritter Elementary School, she said.“It kind of just happened,” she said. “We heard them on Hanover, which is an almost a daily occurrence for us, and they ducked down into our back alleyway and we saw police arrive. That’s when we said, ‘This is getting good!’”Before she started recording, Betancourt said the biker on the green bike tried to hop a curb, but crashed. He eventually fled by hitching a ride on the yellow dirt bike.An Allentown police officer positioned himself next to the fallen green dirt bike, and then the biker on the blue bike attempted to distract the officers and possibly tempt them to chase him in order to get the green dirt bike back, she said.“The blue bike came back and made like four to six passes in front of the officers,” Betancourt said.On his final pass, the dirt biker started popping a wheelie and crashed into the fence, she said.When he crashed, the biker flipped over his handle bars and the bike got stuck on the fence, Betancourt said.Betancourt said the bikers appeared to be in their late teens.“These were not just kids riding bikes,” she said. “They were nuisance riders. They were intentionally riding on the wrong side of the road and doing wheelies.”While the bikers did manage to get away, Betancourt said it was the first time she can recall that police attempted to catch them. She said she is hopeful that is a new approach police are taking against the nuisance bikers.Morning Call reporter Manuel Gamiz Jr. can be reached at 610-820-6595 or at mgamiz@mcall.com.
Source: Morningcall