Getting a bike stolen is heartbreaking. That’s why we love sharing recovery stories. If you’ve been a bike theft victim and you’re feeling helpless, read a few of the stories below and we guarantee you’ll feel better.
Here’s an update to the story about a burglary at Weir’s Cyclery in St. Johns courtesy of Ira Ryan (who works in the basement of the shop), “The cops recovered 10 bikes and most of the other stuff last night. The thief was a resident tweaker in St. Johns who the cops are on a … Read more
Kloeppel’s fork for sale on eBay. Back in December, someone broke into Mike Kloeppel’s Woodstock neighborhood home and stole four of his “irreplaceable” high-end bikes. A few months later Southeast Precinct police officers recovered two of them. Fast forward to a few weeks ago. Out of the blue Kloeppel got a call from someone in … Read more
It’s been way too long since I last shared a stolen bike recovery story, so I was very pleased to get a call last week from local theft victim Michael Kloeppel. Back in December, Michael lost his entire fleet of beloved, high-end bikes when thieves hit his Woodstock home.
[Officer Jim to the rescue]Photo: Jack Newlevant I’m happy to share that yet another bicycle has been recovered due to this site and the vigilance of our bike community. This time the bike was the beloved, vintage Ritchey belonging to Jack Newlevant. He has documented the story well on his personal website. Here’s an excerpt … Read more
It’s been a while since we got a stolen bike back so it felt great to read this comment from a reader yesterday:
Today I’ve got yet another great stolen bike recovery story to share. This one exemplifies the reason I began these listings in the first place; we can’t rely on the Police to get our bikes back. Nothing against them, but they cannot match the power of a savvy and connected bike community working together to … Read more
A few days ago I was hanging out on my street talking to a neighbor. Suddenly, riding toward me on a strange bike with a huge grin on his face was a friend of mine, known as West Cougar. When he got closer, I noticed the bike was a green Kronan (a Swedish military bike … Read more
[Re-united with owner.] I’m happy to report that over the weekend, the vigilance and awareness of the bike community scored yet another victory over bike thieves. On Saturday, Carl Larson noticed a nice Blue Schwinn Homegrown mountain bike in front of Red Light Clothing Exchange in downtown Portland. The bike looked very similar to a … Read more
I love when I wake up to emails like this: “Jonathan, Wanted to let you know I recovered the bike yesterday. I can’t be sure, but it looks like the response posted on BikePortland.org had a lot to do with the bikes current “owner” contacting me to arrange a return. It was a pretty sketchy … Read more
[Recovered!] Just got word that we’ve recovered yet another stolen bike! Here’s how it went down: Last Friday, two guys walked into the downtown Bike Gallery store. The employees were suspicious because they seemed to be high and they left a nice, unlocked green Kona parked outside. When the guys left the store one of … Read more
I can’t get enough of stolen bike recovery stories. This one, involving a bike recently listed here, is one of the best I’ve ever heard. On Monday a reader named “jeffcycles” got his beloved Eddy Merckx stolen from the PSU campus. He quickly spread the word and told everyone he knew to keep an eye … Read more
Because of savvy BikePortland.org readers, we’ve recovered two bikes in the past two weeks. I just love it when this happens and it’s proof that by keeping your eyes open and regularly checking the Stolen Bike Listings we can leverage the power of community to re-unite bikes with their owners. Here are the stories of … Read more