That time my bike got stolen, and how I stole it back

Let me just start by saying, yes, I know, I should have locked up my bike. The lock was in my basket, and as Kyle and I pulled up to the back doors of Slate Creek he even asked, “Want to lock the bikes together?” I shrugged, citing that literally no bike had ever been taken from Slate, and moseyed in to order a glass of wine.

Around an hour-and-a-half later, I snaked through the crowd of people toward the back door while Kyle waited to pay our tab. Walking outside, I looked up from the ground to notice not two bikes parked along the wall, but one. Kyle’s bike was there but mine was missing. I checked around the corner, the surrounding streets and neighboring lawns. Nothing. Walking back into the bar I found Kyle and our friends at the counter. Standing in the middle of the crowd slightly dumbfounded, I managed to spit out, “My bike’s gone.” “Go get in the van, we’ll drive around the block,” Meredith said as she grabbed her keys and jacket. We circled a couple of blocks with no sign of my bike anywhere. The band made an announcement before we left, Kyle and I each posted a photo and description to Facebook in hopes someone might see it, I filed a police report online, and that was that. Other than trolling Craigslist and Facebook for the next couple weeks, I figured we had done our due diligence and I wrote old Blue off as a loss. You see, Blue wasn’t a particularly expensive bike. Last year at the Coeur d’Alene Bike Co.’s bike season kick-off party, I had the lucky fortune of winning the grand raffle prize, a sweet green 6KU cruiser. I immediately loved that bike and couldn’t wait to ride it around town. The only problem was, it was a men’s large frame and I’m a shmedium woman - not exactly the right size. Kyle being the great husband that he is, took it upon himself to order me the women’s version and alas, we then had adorable semi-matching cruisers. So, while I loved my bike, financially it wasn’t a huge loss. What is a huge loss, is the fortress of safety, security and trust that encircled Slate Creek and the fact that it may be gone forever. That now, the new owners may feel obligated to spend a bunch of money on new bike racks and security cameras when they probably have other things they would like to prioritize. That sucks. A couple days went by and other than spending an abnormal amount of time online searching for my own bicycle, I had sort of moved on. A ton of people shared our image on Facebook and I got lots of questions (some from people I don’t really even know) about if I’d found my bike. I even heard back from the police department and an officer was assigned to my case. I assumed they had better things to do than track down my bike.

Then, the Thursday following the theft, I got an email from a co-worker (and fellow CBC patron) with a simple message, “Is this your bike?” I immediately opened the attachment and sure enough there it was. My bike chained to another bike AT MY WORK. What!? Unfortunately it was gone by the time I read that message, but I called up our security department and asked if there was a camera near the sighting. Indeed there was and I suddenly felt hopeful that the bike gods were sending some good karma my way. While the security guy worked with my PD officer to ID the perp, I texted Kyle and my friends who were with me the night of the theft to celebrate this break in the case. Then, the following day I was dropping Kyle off at work and he received a text from another friend. She also spotted my bike in town minutes earlier, just one building away from Kyle’s work. Kyle hopped back in the car and we headed toward the Shopko where it was last seen. There she was, still in the bike rack, unlocked. My gut reaction was to call the police and wait. Kyle’s gut reaction was an act of vigilante justice - seizing the bike and quickly shoving it in the back of my Subaru. In a moment of panic for having just stolen my bike back, and not wanting to be too late for work, we sped away, hearts racing and adrenaline pumping (or at least that was me - Kyle seemed pretty chill). Blue was back.

Following the retrieval, I called the officer I was working with to let him know that we found my bike and the circumstances surrounding its repossession. He was supportive and thrilled to hear of our happy ending. Later that week, thanks to some video footage and photos from each spotting, the thief was identified. As far as I was concerned, case closed. However, the moral of this whole story still remains.Lock your damn bike up.Thank you to everyone who helped us in the search for my bike. A special thanks to Teresa and Karen who saw the bike and reached out. We really do have a special community here, and it’s because of all of you that I’ll still have my cruiser this summer. Love you guys!Andrea