Stolen bikes

whats with Prince Rupert and bike thieves, so far we are down about 7 bikes, of which we recovered 3, all three recovered were taken by 10-12 yr old males, 2 lived on Atlin, and one on Graham, all three were smashed/scratched/mutilated almost beyond recognition. the last one I blundered apon locked up outside Ananciation School, it had been my daughters birthday present and had disappeared 2 weeks after she got it.
Well the kid who took it pleaded not guilty, his reasoning being that he had “found” the bike on Park Ave. trashed and abandoned. Well that didnt quite fit with it all, as I had personally biked/walked/hiked/climbed almost the entirety of the west side (and most of the east) the same day it went missing, and I had been searching for it for about 2 weeks straight (always looking out for the other bikes) and had found nothing, not to mention my kids and their friends play on Park/Kootney/Mckay every day, also, for a trashed/abandoned bike it looked pretty good, only the “girly” stickers and bell removed, and a large number of scratchs to the paint job, cracked pedals. Well, to make it better the police tell me the kids willing to give my daughters parts back, as long as we give him the parts he switched back to him…{shakes head}, sounded kinda like a burgler asking the home owner to trade his breakin tools for some of his own stuff back? the police went along with it, and setup a trade at the police station, aand the mother and kid showed up but wouldnt come inside {cowards?} no apology, not a tear shed for all her pain and my energy wasted, and her disappointment at coming home to yet another trashed bike. and oh ya, the friends of the kids started cursing and giving me and my friend the finger, average age of the kids involved was probably 10, I went over and said “Im not stealing this bike, it was stolen from my daughter, Im just getting it back, okey? its ours.” at which point a mother sitting in a van near the park yelled out at me “HEY YOU! DID YOU JUST THREATEN THOSE CHILDREN!!” well i hadnt, despite how angry I was, I held my tongue and didnt even raise my voice to anyone at the school, teacher/student/parent alike. From the feeling I got from the principle/teachers/parents, was while speedy, was a tad “ruthless” for lack of another word, and as far as I know, since we were denied a meeting with them, the kid was never punished. Which seems to follow the norm for PR when your dealing with RACE, you see, I got to witness a kid (near same age) that got caught with a stolen bike outside Extra, well this kid got put into the police car, and driven home, then after a talk with the parents he was driven down to the police station and then back home, which makes 3 trips in a police car for stealing a bike…the boy who took that bike was native, now compare that with what happened with the kid who took my daughters bike, he got to stay at school, go home with his mom, get the parts, drive down in their own car to the police station and home, without even seeing the people he had victimized. native boy = 3 police car trips + 2 face to faces with the bikes owners , white boy = none. the other 2 bikes i have recovered were, 1 small black norco, found outside Mikey"s Arcade, completely smashed, the thief was pointed out by some people who had seen him riding and smashing it, 10-12 year old white male, I contacted his parents/guardians regarding replacement of the bike, basically told “tough sh!t”, then a Purple girls Norco, found outside Charles Hays School, by the staff, in the middle of the 14-15 year old white male stomping on it, after having used it to ride to school, police make a “deal” with the kid and his mom, and the school, that nothing will happen to the kid if they pay for the repairs, and the police take the bike to Farwest, total cost of the repairs were 30 dollars more than what the bike was worth, so I called his house and he answered, and at one point he started talking about “finding me with some of his friends” so I not knowing the age of the person on the phone, invited him and his friends over, and gave him my address, at which point he must have started crying or something becuase his mother got on the phone and asked me what I was doing threatening a child, I replied “sorry mam, but from the way he was threatening me with him and his friends beating me up he sounded older”. needless to say they didnt pay for the repairs, the cops didnt do anything about it, and the bike was stolen again afterwards, and not seen since. The third bike was a white/blue mongoose, that one was taking about 2 months after she got it, and i found it again, repaired it myself, and it got taken again.

also my red norco pinnacle, just as I had fixed it up really nice, was taken outside west end resturant, and a blue/black norco, from outside our house.

  1. 12" black boys Norco
  2. 14" pink girls Norco
  3. 16" white/blue girls Mongoose
  4. 18" purple girls Norco
  5. 20" blue boys Sportek
  6. 20" white girls Norco
  7. 26" red mens Norco
  8. 26" black mens Norco

*Farwest take note of how many of those bikes on that list are Norco’s from your shop.

and thats just what I can remember off the top of my head, so far, I have yet to meet a parent that was in any way sorry for the trouble caused us. just to clear it up, not everyone involved was trouble, the police officers were very friendly, helpful, and compasionate even.

In how short of time frame did this go down? Shit I swear you can buy anything out there on Rupert Streets, CRACK is here in town and the users are doing everything to keep their flow happening and yes some are thirteen and up. Good luck with bikes, I dod not read your complete post but I will and I hope maybe try and help.

Sorry to hear about your troubles, never good when someone finds that they’ve been victimized especially when its a treasured item for a kid.

As for the difference between the handling of the kid who stole your bike and the one outside Extra Foods, maybe, just throwing this out there, but perhaps that kid’s folks didn’t own a car and the Police were just be a little extra helpful in getting things sorted out, hence the three trips in the police car. Unless you have the first hand information you’re just guessing as to the difference in the way the two situations were handled.

You very well may be right, that there was a a double standard and that the kid that you suggest stole your bike was handled differently, but jumping to conclusions isn’t going to recover your seven stolen bikes.

It sounds like no one was held particularly accountable and that is probably the most frustrating thing for you, at least that’s the way the story has come across here.

It’s not right that your personal stuff was ripped off and it would make me angry as well, but to start tossing out the usual Rupert stuff seems unhelpful to your cause.

Hopefully the police will be able to help you find the remaining four that I think are left on your list, not sure what part of town you live in, but it sounds like having a few bike locks around your house might not be a bad idea. 

buy a damn good bike lock, :stuck_out_tongue:

i never leave home without it, and my bikes are stored indoors…

i had a $600.00 BMX stolen and a Honda xl600r stolen out of my yard… i keep every thing under lock and key…

YOu say the police went along with the parts trade? :confused:  I  don’t get that.
I would think if you could identify your property and it sounds like you can the police would seize it and return it. 

This has happened to use a number of times as well. I caught one of the events, no 10-12 year old here though. These were typically teens wanting a ride home after a few drinks. It could be the case that some of these kids did in fact find your bike left somewhere else. Usually they ride them where they need to and then toss them into the bush. After 3 bikes and a scooter my children learned (finally) to lock up their belongings.

Sorry to hear about your problem with all the bikes. It sucks when stuff you work hard for gets stolen.

I have to say this part though… I assume that because you took the time to write all that text, you wanted people to read it. If you’re going to write a huge block of text you have to take the time to break it into paragraphs. Reading a big wall of text is hard on the eyes, and I suspect most people are doing what I did: I read the first couple of sentences and then gave up.

Why is it that a lot of parents do not make their children accountable for their actions?  I have been in the same boat, with two of my kids bikes, I found the bikes in question I go to the house with the bike receipt and id that matches the engraving on the bike? Parent says they should lock up the bike? To which I reply, it was locked up underneath my stairs, and your child was seen riding it away why don’t you ask your child where he got the bike from … Mother replies that she is too busy??!

OMG I am not the best parent in the world, but I follow how I was brought up,

  • be Honest and admit your mistake NO LYING!
  • be repsonsible for your actions
  • the punishment will fit the CRIME

Our parents managed to get us to be productive adult members of society with careers and no criminal records. I thought this was the norm, but it seems to be the exception these days!

yeah locking your bike up would be a great idea if you  don’t lock it up your just waiting it for to be stolen.

And I agree, but it is slightly depressing that you have to lock up your bike.

Thats why they made bike locks long time ago, is because they basicly new stupid people would ride off you with somebody elses bike. I havent had a bike missing but i had have other things go missing but it wasnt that important because they were old and i wasnt using those things anymore they just did do me a favor and got rid of it for me:P But you are right, we shouldnt have to lock up our bikes.

Just like we shouldn’t have to lock our car doors, or the doors to our homes, or make sure our internet is safe, and not show our pin numbers for our bank accounts to anyone. Wow what a utopia we would be living in.

:smiley:

That’s good to know!  Sorry to hear about the stolen bikes.
Welcome to HTMF, disappointed_dad. :smile:

thank you all for your kind words, i have some changed (revisions) id like to make,

I am sorry for implying that RACE had anything to do with it, even it did or didn’t, seeing my post days later left me shaking my head, although as pointed out I was very angry.

I am also sorry about the format of my post, it was simple minded laziness that lead to it.

I did have a lot of first hand knowledge about the EXTRA incident, as I was the one who recognized their child’s bike, and called the parents attention to it, and I also got home before the cop car got to their house which also happens to be across the street, so I got a front porch view of what happened, while I admit there might have been some things different between the 2 incidents, it does trouble me that the native boy seemed to have been driven back down to the police station, and printed??? He was wiping his fingers off when they dropped him off at home…hence I drew an assumption that there were differences in how the were treated, as I also know for a fact the kid who stole my daughters bike never even had to step in the station.

But all that draws away from the fact the bikes are gone, and yes we’ve spent not only a large amount of money on these bikes, but a lot of time as well, as I would shop for months before purchasing a bike.

The first thing anyone asks me when I tell them about the missing bikes is, “Did you have them locked up?”. My reply is yes in most cases they were, and they simply broke the chain. In other cases one of my children or their friends left the bike on our lawn and came in for a snack, then outside and its gone.

Yes someone else could have taken it and left it (the last bike), but I’ve been working on bikes for about 20+ years, starting riding at 2, and never stopped.  To brag a little, I can tell each screw/nut/bolt from another of the exact same type. At my heyday in biking, I rebuilt my bike(s) everyday, from the ground up, cleaning, polishing, and oiling every single part. I have also owned about 45 bikes since my first tricycle, bought from all kinds of sources, bike auctions, online orders, out of town shipments, Farwest, Kaien, Home Hardware, Zellers Sears, and garage sales.

So I can usually recognize a stolen bike from 1000 feet away, typical things give it away, black paint over another color, missing decals, swapped/mismatched parts, wrong size/gender for the rider. While all these things don’t define every instance, they are pretty good guides, but the best one is simply by trying to know by sight the rider/bike combo’s, ie. riders I’ve seen along time with the same ride.

again thanks all and keep safe out there.

My Dad had a black bike with all the stickers removed from it.  He said he removed the stickers so that it didn’t look like as good a bike as it was, 'cause he didn’t want it stolen.  Funny. (no, my dad didn’t steal it.)

Saying that you shouldn’t have to lock up your bike is like saying you shouldn’t have to take your keys out of the car when you park it.  Sure, it’d be nice if we all lived in the land of Star Trek where there was a common goal and no motivation to steal or earn money - but come on, that just isn’t reality.

true, lol !

I agree and disagree, it is naive of me to expect nothing to happen, but its kinda part of me, I dont believe in locking everything up, maybe that would make me a mark in these times, but there it is, I dont want to accept living in fear, this is my island, as much as anyones, I think I and my children deserve not to live in fear. I may have done things wrong in my time, but I was punished as I deserved, I accepted that, and it made me a better person, I hope… and I see plenty of cars/trucks not locked with the keys in the ignition running outside stores downtown…soooo

btw, I do forgive the young lad if he did it, I dont take any pleasure in the idea of a child fearing me, much less another adult, I fully intend to be a life long contributor to PR, I even had another bike I bought and rebuilt and had intended to leave in the bike rack at his school with his name on it giving it to him, I was quite thankfull to get it back in at least running condition…

everytime ive had this situation, its been assumed that I meant the child some kind of bodily harm, which is actually as impossible for me as it is for you…and also everytime Ive had some kind of wierdness from the adult, never just a plain straight “sorry my child has deprived your child of thier bicycle, here let me make out a cheque to replace it, and heres a little bonus for your trouble”. I hope thats what I would do if that were to happen to me…all i can say is thanks to all for any support and express my regret that this all happened at all…

sorry PoP I just saw your post, umm, black with no stickers!!! thats gotta be hot…but I have bought a number of ex-hot bikes from the city…j/k mate, I hate to sound like its such a narrow definition of a stolen bike, I just meant that a combination of some factors have to point to a bike “probably” have been stolen…I don’t claim to be telepathetic, all I claim that is I exist, whether you all do, is really just up to me… :wink:

ohhh ya, also i should have been more accurate, I originally meant PAINTED black, ie over another color, also the quality of the paint job as well, bad black over pink stands out or orange, unless someone thought the original was hideous as I have seen.

UPDATE (the bike I had intended to give the youngster was STOLEN)  it was stolen sunday seafest afternoon, my assumption was that a child used it to get to a seafest event…doh…sorry little buddy till I get another one…