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Community Corner

Is this YOUR bicycle?

Or perhaps you know whose it is?  It was left outside my open garage on Friday, September 20th.  Why was it left at my house?  Because the person who took my son’s new bicycle out of my garage, rode it here.  I suppose you could say the person exchanged bicycles, not really stole one.  But, then again, the one left (a Schwinn) probably belongs to someone else.  I am writing this article for three reasons.  First, I would like to find the rightful owner of the Schwinn bicycle.  No sense having two missing bicycles, if one is available to be returned.  So if this one looks familiar to anyone, please contact everythingwork4good@gmail.com.

Second, I want to make people aware that bicycles are an easy target for thieves who are looking to get some cash (and I suspect it is not to buy their mother a birthday present).  This was not an easy steal either.  Our garage is on the side of the house facing some woods.  You have to pass two of our neighbors before getting to our house.  It was about 1:45 in the afternoon.  My car was in the garage and I was changing to go out.  My son’s bicycle was leaning on the far, inside wall of the garage, practically next to the door into the house.  I came out at 2:00 and the new bicycle was gone and the other bicycle was left.  The brazen individual did their homework.  They had to have known that the bicycle was there.  And they took their chances in getting it out.  The police officer who came said several bicycles had been stolen in the general area with the same “mode-of-operation”:  leaving another bicycle while taking one from that residence.  While checking on-line, it appears this method is very common, so maybe my thief is not so unique!!  Please be aware of this happening.  Unfortunately and understandably, unless enough bicycles get stolen, these cannot be the highest priority of our police force.  In addition, our system “allows” bicycle stealing.  There is almost no punishment.  And depending on the level of professionalism of the thief, the rewards of reselling can be pretty good. 

So that leads to my third reason for writing to our community, and that is to see if anyone has seen or heard of this event.  My son’s bicycle is a new Trek, graphite gray, hybrid.  As in similar stories I have read on-line, we took several months to look for a bicycle for him.  It was a combined Christmas and birthday gift.  And we went to several stores, shopped the sales, and finally found one he liked.  It was a little more than I wanted to pay, but I figured he would have it for life.  My hope is that someone else will enjoy riding it as much as he did the two months he had it.     

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