Published October 8, 2010
As BU Police warn of a rash of bike thefts — and State Police report a grisly hit-and-run today on the Jamaicaway — here are two two-wheeled tales with happy endings.
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The remains of two stolen bicycles in Florence, Italy (Michele Aquila/Flickr)
After he dashed into J.P. Licks in Brookline for ice cream last night, WBUR’s Will Smith discovered his $1,500 bicycle — his only transportation — was gone.
“I was pretty bummed. But then again, I felt pretty stupid,” he says. “I left it out unlocked .”
He was inside all of five minutes, he says.
Will flagged down a Brookline cop, who called in the report. “There’s not much we can do,” the officer told him.
Ten minutes later, Will’s wife greeted him at his front door: “They found your bike.”
They found it deposited behind a store in Allston, an officer later said, probably waiting to be picked up by an accomplice as part of some kind of bike-stealing ring.
Will picked up the bike this morning and asked for a copy of the report so he could write a thank-you note. (“The chief likes getting those,” the officer told him.) The report names Det. Lt. Lipson, Det. Lacy and Det. McDonnell.
“I had no expectation of getting my bike back,” Will says. Now he can have his ice cream and eat it, too.
Meanwhile, in Boston yesterday, a man called police after he saw his stolen bicycle for sale on Craigslist. With the cops’ help, the man arranged a meeting with the sellers to buy the bike. The BPD report takes it from here:
Around 10:15AM, two male suspects rode up on two bicycles to 560 Huntington Ave. and one asked the victim, “Are you the one looking for the bike?” The victim responded affirmatively but stated to the two suspects, “Yes, but I wanted the white bike.” One of the suspects responded to the victim that he had already sold the white bike and attempted to negotiate a deal for the bike that he ridden there. At that time, detectives and officers walked up on the suspects and identified their office.
The two teens admitted to stealing the bikes and were arrested. Incidentally, the man had met one of them two years earlier — when the teen returned the man’s stolen bike for a reward.