THOUSAND OAKS : Gang Members Held in Bike Theft, Beating

A Thousand Oaks man was in jail Wednesday and a second was released on $20,000 bail after the pair were arrested in connection with an assault on a man who tried to retrieve his wife’s stolen bicycle, authorities said.

Dario Lopez, 21, was released on bail Wednesday and is scheduled to be arraigned Sept. 21 on charges of burglary, strong-arm robbery and vandalism in connection with the Monday incident.

Victor Maddens, 18, was still in jail Wednesday afternoon. He is scheduled to be arraigned today.

The pair were arrested after Jerry Seck, who was driving to his house on Flittner Circle in Thousand Oaks on Monday, saw two men walking near his home with a bicycle resembling his wife’s, Sheriff’s Sgt. Harold Humphries said.

When Seck, 37, pulled into his garage and saw that the bike was missing, he drove around his neighborhood looking for the men. After spotting them a short distance away, Seck asked the men to turn over the bicycle, and the two attacked him, Humphries said.

One used a square liquor bottle to smash out the passenger window of Seck’s 1985 Volkswagen Cabriolet, cutting himself in the process, Humphries said. The man then hit Seck in the head with the bottle, Humphries said.

The other man reached through the driver’s window and punched Seck in the face, the sergeant said.

Seck drove away without the bicycle and went home to call the Sheriff’s Department. He was taken to Los Robles Regional Medical Center, where he was treated for scrapes to his head, given a tetanus shot and released, Humphries said.