USF Dean Admits Role In Bike Theft

An associate dean at the University of South Florida has admitted to taking a student's bicycle this week in a theft that was captured on a surveillance tape and later posted on YouTube.

Abdul Rao, who oversees research grants for the College of Medicine, is on leave with pay until the campus investigation is complete, said USF spokesman Michael Hoad.

In a statement, Rao apologized and said he was trying to help a day laborer who needed transportation.

"I deeply regret this failure in judgment and the unfortunate attention it has generated," he wrote to USF officials. "... I gave a man who does odd jobs for me permission to use a bicycle that was parked at the center. I acted out of compassion for this nearly homeless man; but I failed to consider that the bicycle belonged to someone on our Alzheimer's team."

Rao, who makes $384,000 a year, took the bike on Monday night from a bike parking area on the loading dock of the Johnnie B. Byrd Sr. Alzheimer's Center and Research Institute.

The tape shows a woman riding up and parking her bicycle against a railing at 2 p.m. About 8:50 p.m., a minivan pulls up and Rao and a man get out. They look through some bikes near the railing, pick one and leave with it in the minivan.

The owner of the red mountain bike, doctoral student Timothy Boyd, said he had loaned it to the woman seen on the tape. She reported it stolen when she returned Tuesday morning to find it was missing. Campus police said they requested the surveillance video that day.

So did Boyd, who put it on a computer drive, making it available to other students. By Wednesday, someone had posted a copy for viewing on YouTube.

Boyd said he knew of Rao but had never met him. On Wednesday, Rao sent an assistant to find Boyd so they could meet. At about the same time, the handyman returned the bike.

Boyd said Rao told him he had only planned to borrow the bike for a day. "He said it was just a misunderstanding," Boyd said. He asked Boyd to withdraw his complaint because the bicycle had been returned.

But Boyd wants USF police to charge Rao with stealing the $100 bike, a misdemeanor.

"When you take something without asking permission, that's just stealing. ... People have to do what's right."

In an interview Friday, Rao said he never intended to keep the bike.

"How stupid would that be? I knew the cameras were there."

Rao was hired at the USF Health Sciences Center in 2005. He is an Oxford-educated transplant immunologist who has overseen millions in research grants. Before coming to USF he was vice provost for research and dean of the College of Graduate Studies at the Middle Tennessee State University.