Itajai military police on the north coast of South Carolina last Saturday arrested a 24-year-old man who not only tried to steal a teenager’s bike, but assaulted him.

A young man was riding his bicycle home when a man approached him – Photo: Polícia Militar/Reproduction/ND

The police were patrolling the Cordeiros area in Itajaí when they spotted four people who appeared to be fighting.

Approaching the group, law enforcement officers discovered that the man was trying to steal a bicycle from a 14-year-old boy.

According to the victim, she was driving home with two friends when a man snatched the bike out of her hands.

When he tried to intervene, the man started punching him in the face. It was then that the military police noticed the scene and turned to the perpetrators.

The 19-year-old suspect reported that he used crack, so he tried to steal a bicycle. They told the police that they would take the bike to Morro do Matadoro, where they would exchange it for drugs.

The man was taken to the Main Forensic Institute (IGP) of Balneario Camboriu and then to the Itajaí Central Police Department.