Remember how the biking gods turned against Seattle’s Riding Reporter a few weeks ago? First she got doored, then her cyclocross bike was stolen.
Well, things are looking up. A bike commuter and racer spotted her Redline Conquest parked in a suspicious spot at his workplace recently. Thinking that the bike might be lost or stolen, he took it home and posted to Craigslist.
I perused Craigslist and Ebay every day, twice a day but found nothing. Until Sunday evening that is. I was looking through the bike section on Craigslist when I saw a post about a “stolen or found Redline Conquest”. I immediately responded to the author of the post, and he asked me to describe it. After a few rounds of emailing back and forth and him questioning me intensely, he determined that it was indeed my bike.
The guy, as it turns out, is a fellow bike racer who bike commutes to work almost daily. Working at a senior assisted living home, he is the only person in the building who does so, and he has a set spot in the building’s garage where he locks his bike to a set of pipes using a kryptonite lock and wheel-cables. Last week he arrived to work and found a bicycle in his usual spot with his cables wrapped around it to make it appear to be locked. He thought this was odd but at the same time, he was initially excited to have fellow bike-riding colleague. He started asking around about the new bike-rider but no one knew anything about the bike in the garage. So he went back and locked the bike to his own using the Krypto lock. At the end of his day, he returned to the garage to find that someone had tried to pry the Krypto open, which is impossible. So thinking this was all very fishy, he took the bike home and posted a note on Craigslist.
She contacted him, verified it was hers, and he gave it back to her. So there you have it! A fellow cyclist made a fairly gutsy move to help a stranger, and it paid off. Good work!
Comments
7 responses to “How the Riding Reporter got her stolen bike back”
That is fairly gutsy and glad that the outcome was positive. Not sure I would have thought a bike mimicking being locked up would make me think it was suspicious though. Not sure I would lock someone elses unlocked bike to my own in any circumstance. Its not for me to judge why someone would leave it unlocked, and how would you know when someone wants to leave with it again anyway? How would they find you to get you to unlock it for them? Kind of weird logic in my opinion. I guess the evidence of the person trying to “pry” the bike away from the other locked bike must have been somewhat damaging to make the whole thing “suspicious”.
No the suspicious part is that the parking garage is for his business, and that no one knew anything about it. And if it had been legit, the owner would have come to the front desk in huff demanding to know who the h*ll owned the other bike and why the h*ll did he think it was cool to lock the two together.
Glad it worked out, but now one wonders who had that bike, and if they’ll be back with the right tools to take the good Samaritans bike. 1 bike down 3 more to go if I read the first article right.
When I was a kid, I spotted my sister’s stolen Schwinn in front of the neighborhood bowling alley. I knew it was hers because the thief hadn’t fully removed a couple stickers that I myself had stuck on it prior to its getting stolen.
I locked it with my chain, called the bike store to get the serial number out their records, then called the cops. To their credit, they came by and went into the bowling alley asking if anyone owned the yellow Schwinn out front… no takers, obv. “Okay, kid. I guess it’s yours.”
Wow, cool. Glad to know she is back on two wheels again. I might not have latched it to mine, but I certainly would have reported it to the police and taken down the serial number. Great story. Now about those doors………
yay! Anne is the best, I’m glad she’s been re-united!
We need more warm and fuzzies like this. Awesome!
Speaking of lost bikes. Found a stripped Fuji offroad frame today her in Ballard. If anyone knows of one stolen, please contact me. Next stop is the SPD.
I am very glad to hear that the reporter got here bike back, btw!