Man stopped for riding bike on the sidewalk charged with trafficking crack

Police stopped a bicycle rider to scold him for riding on the sidewalk and ended up charging him with trafficking crack cocaine on Thursday.

Around 4:25 p.m., the man rode along the sidewalk near Main Street East and Tisdale in central Hamilton, getting in the way of pedestrians, police say.

Officers stopped him and told him that it's against a city bylaw to ride bicycles on sidewalks. While they were talking to him, they found "inconsistencies in the statements he was making," police say. They believed he was concealing drugs.

Officers told him he was under arrest and he ran away. They caught him and found $3,500 in crack cocaine and cocaine powder, police say, along with $1,000 in cash and "other evidence of drug trafficking."

A 36-year-old Mississauga man is charged with trafficking cocaine, resisting arrest and possessing the proceeds of crime.