Motorcycle Theft Charges Pressed Against Gaithersburg Man, Police Say

GAITHERSBURG, MD — A Gaithersburg man is facing motorcycle theft charges after officers saw him driving without plates May 20, a Montgomery County Police news release says.

Authorities say that Reginald Alden Banks Jr., 30, was driving the motorcycle and turned into a parking garage in the 800 block of Ellsworth Drive when police saw him.

The officers followed Banks into the garage and saw him wearing a gray and orange backpack, the news release says. Banks ran and officers followed him, authorities say. When he came out of a corner he was no longer wearing the backpack, according to the news release.

An officer heading to the parking garage saw a gray and orange backpack on the ground and people nearby told him that they saw it fall from the garage, according to police. Police say the officer found a loaded M-11 Uzi 9mm handgun with an extended magazine, cash, several bags of what officers suspect is cocaine, hollow point and full metal jacket ammunition inside the backpack.

Police say the motorcycle was stolen from Loudon County in September 2021. Banks is charged with auto theft, multiple weapons offenses as a prohibited person and possession of a controlled dangerous substance, according to the news release.