Stolen Bike story

[TJK]

You gotta stolen bike story? Get it back? Didnt, but saw it later? Killed people with a chainsaw later because of it?
Tell us the tale.

Here's mine.

I'll post the full story some time, but i had a guy break into my garage and steal my raleigh mtb and my buddy's NEXT pos MTB.. they ignored my wife's new raleigh mtb on the back porch..
anyhow.. reported it and all.. since the items were less than the deductable on the insurance, no dice..
Guess what.. two weeks later...on the way home from Church, my wife tells me to take a different way.. through town.. I usually just take the highway cut around.. but we went that way..
She and I were in my little race prepped miata, its feburary and chilly..
Guess what i see!
Some moron riding my prized mtb (clipless pedals and bar ends identify it immediately.. he's wearing sneakers, no cleats!) I told my wife to hang on.. i spun the car, drifted around a corner and pulled up to a "starski and hutch" style skidding stop.
Jumped out of the car and said "GIMME MY BIKE BACK, YOU SON OF A B____!" Wife jumps out and all but vaults over the car "HAND IT OVER F___ER!" (yes, my lovely wife actually said that.)
He said "here! You can have it." and dropped it.
My wife started interrogating him and he actually answered a few questions before he realized that he could just walk away.. and did just that.
We called the cops.. they never showed. We told them we had the guy and everything.. no cops
So.. we dropped the top, and held the bike against the rollbar, driving home in 30 degree weather.

Nothing wrong with the bike at all... little dirty.

Needless to say, the bike went inside the house.

-TJ

 

[yeshoney]

Yeah - I have a great story too!

I was 15 at the time, no drivers liscense yet. I had just purchased a 12 speed Puegot Ultralite. I entered our local Criterium and placed 8 out of 50+ factory riders. Not bad since I never had any training. Actually led 2 laps before I was asssaulted by the factory teams but still held my own. Very gratifying. Anyway later that year I was at the local Bowling Alley and did not have my little chain lock. I spent a lot of time there and everyone knew my bike. I went in to play video Games and came out a little bit later and the bike was gone! I was devastated! First time something like this had happened to me (I bought the bike with my paper route money, something like $125) So I had to make the dreaded walk home by foot. It sucked! I then had to face my parents and explain what happened. So for a few days I searched and looked all over the place. It was a Wednesday and I was in Catholic school which meant that every Wednesday we got out earlier than all the other schools. A block away from the Catholic High School is the Public High School. I decided to walk home that day and take a trip by the bike rack at the Public school and what do I see parked in the bike rack is my bike! So I simply "stole" it back! Rode it home on low tire pressure, but otherwise pretty much unharmed. After that I never left a bike unlocked. At the same time I had this bike I had a Raleigh 3 speed that was my primary paper route bike and I still had my custom Raleigh Chopper.

Joe

 

[cashman]

This took place back in the mid 1960's. It was the only time my dad's shop was broken into in the 57 years he was in business.
One morning dad arrived at work and found someone had broken a window out and opened a door to the rear of the shop the night before. He always left the cash register drawer open so if someone broke in, they woudn't tear the cash register up, and he would leave the change in it but not the bills. Someone had got all the change out of the drawer. Less than $10. Later that day my mother discovered two new ladies Murray lightweight bikes were missing.
This was during a turbulent time in the 1960's when a lot of businesses were vandalized and burgularized and dad just assumed this was the case. The police filed a report, but they didn't have a lot of manpower to go looking for stolen bikes, but said they would keep an eye out for them.
That evening on the way home from work, my mother and I stoped for gas at a filling station next to our house. The owner lived next door to us. He told us of having to travel to Huntsville AL that day, about 70 miles away, to retrieve his sister in laws car he was repairing that got stolen from the filling station lot the night before. He said two young boys about 14 or 15 years old had rode bicycles out from town, about 7 miles, and straight wired his sister in laws 1950's Ford and made it nearly to Huntsville before they ran out of gas and a local policeman saw them sitting on the side of the road and stopped to ask what was going on. This was in the middle of the night. When the policeman pulled up behind them, they jumped and ran. Stuffed in the trunk of the Ford were two new looking bicycles. When we told the filling station owner about someone breaking into the shop and two bicycles were missing we all thought thats where the two stolen bikes went!!! He gave us the towing company's name and phone number that towed the stolen car in and the next morning my mother called them and gave them the serial numbers of the two bikes and they matched the bikes at the towing company. After I got out of school that day my mother and I traveled to Huntsville and got the two bikes. About a month later, an older well dressed gentleman came in the shop with two young guys and told my mother and dad that the two boys had something to tell them. They both apologized for breaking into the shop and hoped that my dad wouldn't file charges against them as they had wondered away from an alternative school in GA without permission and were trying to reach one of the guys home in TN and thats when they broke into the shop and stole the bikes and the car. Mother and dad having raised boys of their own knew just what to say to them. They weren't going to file any charges but gave them a pep talk about the rest of their lives in a kind and gentle way. You should have seen the look on thier faces when they found out they had stolen the car from our neighbor. Our niegbor or his sister in law didn't file charges either. A few years later one of the boys sent my dad a letter offering to pay for the window and use of the bicycles. He described in his letter how that event had caused him to straighten out some kinks in his life and wanted to make things right. My mother sent him a letter back and told him "debt paid". Thanks!!!

 

[Anonymous]

here mine goes......

i was like 15-16 traded two skyway mags for a DB viper frame and forks while i was in toledo stayin with my dad. i brought it home and used every top end crappy part i had in the basement. i was proud of this bike. it was the first close to new bike i had. my lil bro wanted to ride it so i said yes but bring it in the house when your done. he didn't and it was gone.

about 3 weeks later i was coming home with some friends(car)and seen some guy on my bike. SAID HEY!!! THAT"S MY BIKE!! so we drove right at him a like 3/4 pedal. screeeeeeech just about took him out. he jumped off the bike and never seen him again. YEAH got my bike back.....

fast forward 7 -8 years workin in the body shop now. rode it just about every day there. thought this old bike needs some fresh paint. so i tossed some ford blue flip flop off the probe on it and cleared it 5 times. it was deep really deep. she was so nice. put it back together and rode her around. AHHHH fresh paint. called the sign shop for stickers. took him pics so he could get the the same as i had. went home was thinking about those stickers and my bike all night.

got in next morning and someone broke in and stole 4 cars 2 DA"s all my guns (4 @ 450.00 a pop) and my bike.

 

[CCR]

I had a Huffy Pro-Disc that was my first "new" bicycle, we lived on a 1/4 mile dead end rd that no one ever drove down so i always found my bikes where i left em in the yard at home. Couple years later i went to a friends house to play nintendo. when i went to go home my bike was gone and by this time there were plenty of "new must have" bicycles out. All i could think of is COOL, I CAN GET A NEW BIKE !!! so i called my grandpa to pick me up, on the way home we stopped by a drive-in burger place, my grandpa had saw a kid on a bike like mine before he came to pick me up, he turned around to catch up to the kid and the kid bailed and threw the bike in the ditch behind the drive-in, it was mine. so my new bike dreams were crushed, but at least i still had a bike :mrgreen:

 

[ParkRNDL]

back in high school, after riding a junky old KHS 10-speed all over creation and spending way too much upgrading it, I got a nice road bike called a Zebrakenko. I know, I know... what the heck is that? Well, a couple years ago I found pics of one very similar to mine on the Web. Mine was this color...

The one in this pic has been converted to a fixie--mine had Suntour Blue Line components. Mine had a smaller frame and matching orange bar tape. Not much of a story... forgot it out in front of the house one night and it was gone the next morning. Dad's homeowners' insurance covered it, and I got a new Motobecane Jubilee Sport. This was around 1985-1986. Still have it hanging in the garage...

--rick

 

[moparmayhem93]

never had a bike stolen......knock on wood

 

[kingplinker]

I had almost every bike I ever owned as a kid stolen. My favorite was a red anodized BMX mongoose with tuffwheel II's bulldog neck, lot's of very cool stickers, etc. - I let my brother ride it - he left it in the yard for like an hour and it was gone gone gone...

One time (guess I was 9 or 10) a guy in the apartments down the road stole my bike, I saw it and brought it back home. He painted the entire thing silver & gold, even the tires - as I was cleaning it up him & his dad or brother (some old dude) came in my back yard and took the bike BACK - I said it was mine... they said it was theirs... they had a buck knife... I was home alone, and weaponless - I gathered a posse after they left, but never found the guy or my bike - guess he was visiting - sucked bad.

Thieves Suck!

 

[aka_locojoe]

3 bike stolen that I recall.

As a kid I was going to ride to the public pool but I wasn't allowed to take my bike because I didn't have a lock so I walked. Later in the afternoon my Mother decides to ride my bike down to the pool to check on me. She leaned it against the fence while she walked the perimeter of the pool to find me. Someone stole it.

When my daughter was a kid her bike was stolen from the front yard and the thief had left their old bike in it's place. I caught up to him and got the bike back.

A few years back on our way home from California we stayed over a night in Vegas. Our 2 Specialized MTBs were locked up (although not all that well) to a rack in the bed of the truck in the hotel parking lot. Overnight someone cut the lock off my wife's bike and stole it. I really new better and should have brought them in to the hotel room but was just too lazy.

 

[Daddyar]

It must have been 80 or 81, I was in Jr high, and my pop bought me my dream bike- a brand new metallic blue Schwinn Cruiser. I was so paranoid that someone would steal it from school that I had a big ... chain AND a cable to lock the thing up with. At the time, BMX was big, so I started to get a few things for the bike-red A'Me tri grips, a red anodized Suntour seat post clamp, and a blue anodized fluted seat post. (Why I thought the red and blue looked good together, I'll never know, but I liked it.) So after riding my bike for a while, i parked right in front of my front door. It starts getting dark, the bike is still there, and I'm sitting in a chair next to the door, with my back to it. All this time, me, scared to ride the thing to school, leaves it unlocked at home. I hear the kickstand fall, so I casually get up, thinking the bike fell over. that is, until I see some guy tearing through my front yard on it! I yelled, HEY, THAT'S MY BIKE, and started chasing the guy. I got as far as the curb when I saw a carful of his buddies start cracking up, and they took off after him. Man, was I bummed out. I musta had my mom drive around half the neighborhood looking for my bike. Never saw it again. i remeber my po paid about $200 for the bike from (I think) Mulrooneys Schwinn on South Street in Artesia, Cal.

I did get another cruiser soon after (a Univega), and honestly don't know what happened to that one. But man, I miss my first Schwinn!!!

 

[TheFlyingDingo]

It must have been 80 or 81, I was in Jr high, and my pop bought me my dream bike- a brand new metallic blue Schwinn Cruiser. I was so paranoid that someone would steal it from school that I had a big butt chain AND a cable to lock the thing up with. At the time, BMX was big, so I started to get a few things for the bike-red A'Me tri grips, a red anodized Suntour seat post clamp, and a blue anodized fluted seat post. (Why I thought the red and blue looked good together, I'll never know, but I liked it.) So after riding my bike for a while, i parked right in front of my front door. It starts getting dark, the bike is still there, and I'm sitting in a chair next to the door, with my back to it. All this time, me, scared to ride the thing to school, leaves it unlocked at home. I hear the kickstand fall, so I casually get up, thinking the bike fell over. that is, until I see some guy tearing through my front yard on it! I yelled, HEY, THAT'S MY BIKE, and started chasing the guy. I got as far as the curb when I saw a carful of his buddies start cracking up, and they took off after him. Man, was I bummed out. I musta had my mom drive around half the neighborhood looking for my bike. Never saw it again. i remeber my po paid about $200 for the bike from (I think) Mulrooneys Schwinn on South Street in Artesia, Cal.

I did get another cruiser soon after (a Univega), and honestly don't know what happened to that one. But man, I miss my first Schwinn!!!

could you imagine if you found your FIRST SCHWINN again?



no stolen bike storys for me...i live in the "good" part of town

 

[Rat Rod]

Awesome story cashman!

 

[Daddyar]

Of course! Every time I go to any of the car or bike swap meets out here, I keep an eye out for the seat post and clamp, cuz that would be a dead giveaway. When i was about 20 or 21, I bought a complete Schwinn Cruiser, unassembled, for about 30 bucks at the pomona swap meet. I put it together, rode the crap out of it, and still have that one. Of course it's in pieces again, but It's still mine, and i've picked up a few more frames and parts along the way. My daily rider now is a newer (90s, import I believe) Schwinn 5 speed cruiser.