(Michigan City, IN) - A La Porte area man wanted for several months is now in custody on allegations ranging from shoplifting to fleeing police on a bicycle.

 

Jeffrey Utpatel, 51, is charged in La Porte Superior Court 4 with resisting law enforcement and theft.

 

According to court documents, Utpatel in October was riding a bicycle in the Holliday St. area with no lights or reflectors and being watched by an officer in his patrol vehicle when he began pedaling faster.

 

Police said the officer yelled for him to stop but he kept going, forcing the officer to activate his overhead lights and siren. Urpatel continued on, though, riding between residences in his bid to escape before hit with the probes of a taser gun fired by the officer, court documents revealed.

 

He fell off the bicycle and was briefly knocked unconscious before taken to a hospital with a laceration to his forehead.

 

In early February, he allegedly walked into Lowe’s and quickly filled a shopping cart with more than $800 in merchandise and left without paying. The stolen items included tools, caulk, paper towels, hand wipes and tape, police said.

 

He was identified from surveillance video at the store because of his face being familiar to store security and police from prior encounters.

 

Utpatel was taken into custody the following month.