YELLOWKNIFE - Every day, RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich walks into the Yellowknife detachment and thinks the same thing: "Please someone claim these bikes."

RCMP Const. Roxanne Dreilich stands with a heap of bicycles outside of the Yellowknife detachment. She said the RCMP is running out of room for the bikes, and hopes people will call to claim them. - Adam Johnson/NNSL photo

Right now, the detachment in Yellowknife is sitting on a treasure trove - a dirty, half-functioning, grease-covered treasure trove - of more than 35 bicycles recovered from around the city.

The problem, she says, is no one knows who they belong to.

"They don't match up with any (stolen bike) reports we have," she says.

"Some of them are quite valuable."

The heap, such as it is, is around the back of detachment, a not-so-orderly line of all makes, models and ages chained together on an overflowing bike rack.

Most aren't pretty, but they used to be someone's mode of transportation.

"When they come to us, there's always something wrong with them," she said. "(The thieves) ride them hard and then abandon them."

There are some that stick out of the pack, however. A West Coast Chopper-branded cruiser and a CCM mountain bike both look like someone probably misses them.

The two-wheeled wonders are becoming a bit of problem, Dreilich said, and the pile has grown to overflowing. Aside from a chained row of bikes on the rack, some bikes are chained to other bikes, spilling out into the parking lot.

"It's becoming a bit of a hazard," she said.

She said RCMP policy is to hold the bikes for 60 days, at which point they are shipped to K & W Cycle to be refurbished for the Rotary Club's annual bike auction.

Dreilich said the RCMP usually turns over 100 bikes a year. Only a month after the bike auction, the detachment is already sitting on 35 bikes.

While the bikes eventually find their way into good hands, Dreilich said she would still like to see them go back to their homes.

"Our utmost goal is to get these bikes back to their rightful owners."