Duo chases down alleged bike thief
Shop owner suggests bike registry to help return stolen bikes
Shane Magee
Northern News Services
Monday, August 24, 2015
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Jed Watson had just arrived at Old Town Bikeworks where he works fixing bikes and parked his red Rocky Mountain Metro bicycle in the staff rack Aug. 18. Within 15 minutes, it was gone.
Jed Watson, left, with his bike stolen Aug. 18 from where he works at Old Town Bikeworks with Matthew Grogono, at right. - Shane Magee/NNSL photo |
Someone had walked into the small shop's yard from the street and snatched up the most expensive bike, which Watson had left unlocked.
"I was just kind of irritated that someone would walk up into our high-traffic area and just take it," Watson said.
The shop deals with plenty of people who have had their bikes stolen, said owner Matthew Grogono. But now, it was one of their own. He said based on experience it's easiest to find and recover a stolen bike within the first 24 hours when it's still likely being driven around in the same area.
Grogono and Watson immediately jumped into a vehicle and started driving around the city.
Soon they spotted the bike and took a photo of the person dressed all in red riding it up the hill toward downtown.
"Then we confronted him and he claimed he had found it in bushes and promptly ran away," said Grogono, who filed a police report about the incident. After checking around, they were able to get the name of the person based on the photo. They took that information to the police last week.
Police told him the man was picked up and was likely spending the night in police custody and was potentially connected to break and enters in Old Town, said Grogono.
It was a fast recovery for Watson's bike, but that may not always be the case for others.
"(RCMP) were very sympathetic to our concern but said they've got a very large pile of bicycles in the back of their property that have been unclaimed and it's difficult for people to claim their bicycle because nobody has proof of ownership of any kind," Grogono said.
Messages left with RCMP for comment on this story were not returned by press time. It was the second bike stolen from the shop within weeks. That bike was also recovered.
"These thefts are not something we're going to tolerate," Grogono said.
Grogono said when customers come into his shop to buy a bike or get it repaired, staff try to emphasize the importance of taking a photo of the bike and its serial number. That way if it is stolen and recovered, it can be properly claimed. Without that proof, it's much harder to get a bike back, he said. Bikes held by police are donated to the Rotary Club each year. They're auctioned off as a fundraiser for the organization. In 2012 an auction of 42 bikes netted the group $5,033.
Grogono likes the idea of creating a bicycle registration program of some sort so that stolen bikes can be linked back to original owners.
He called the existing system, almost the perfect recycling system, except for the grief caused to those whose bikes are stolen.
"Bikes get bought, bikes get used, bikes get stolen, and then they get to the police station and then the Rotary Club auctions them off and make money off of it and the bikes go back into the food chain," Grogono said.
