Authorities in one Southern California city say teenagers on e-bikes are terrorizing the community, including shooting people with airsoft guns.
“Attention parents, we need your help,” read a social media message from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department’s Lake Forest office on Thursday. “We are all about having fun this summer, but when the fun starts to endanger life and property, that’s where we need to step in.”
Deputies say teens have been recklessly riding electric motorcycles and e-bikes around Foothill Ranch Towne Centre, vandalizing property and “assaulting” customers and businesses with airsoft weapons.
The incidents have prompted deputies to increase patrols, and a photo shared on Instagram shows two electric motorcycles they recently seized.
“As a reminder, e-motorcycles such as Sur-ron, Talaria, 79 Bike, RAWR Mantis, Stark, etc., are for off-highway use only and are not street legal,” the sheriff’s department said. “Any criminal behavior will be investigated as such, and we will continue to address unsafe e-motorcycle and e-bike concerns through education and enforcement.”
Incidents involving teens on electric bikes have spiked in Southern California this summer.
The Lake Forest alert comes a month after nearby Huntington Beach approved a series of new restrictions on their use due to increased complaints and injuries, city officials said.
Further north, a group of at least a dozen e-bikers sent visitors at the Hermosa Beach Pier scrambling when they launched illegal fireworks into a crowd.
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