lyledriver
So.. yesterday after work, I decide to go to my girlfriend's coffee shop/roasting plant, which is located blocks from my pad, in a sketchy part of town. Right behind the coffee shop is a metal recycling place called Capital Salvage.
Capitol Salvage doesn’t ID their clientele, so all kinds of skids bring all kinds of metals there to be scrapped. Its not surprising to see grocery carts full of aluminum siding there.
Anyways.. I’m walking up, and notice a Green de-badged supercycle cruiser with a baby trailer, leaned up against the dumpster.
(Background: A few weeks ago my girlfriend's sister Aly, was hit by a car along a bike route. While she was taken to the hospital, her boyfriend took her wrecked bike to his back porch. The next day, the tweaked bike was stolen)
I did a double take, and had to go look.
Sure enough, this was Aly’s bike.
I had worked on this thing, and got to know it intimately just a month previous.
It even had my stainless hardware on the rack (nyloc nuts too).
The rear stays were bent and bent back again. The downtube had a big dent.
This bike had been in a car accident. It was tweaked all over.
I inspected it a bit closer.
The baby cart was held on with a bungee cord.
Just as I was thinking about what to do, someone in the capitol salvage yard started yelling.
“HEY HEY HEY, whatcha doin with that bike!”
A graying bearded guy in his 40s comes out of the salvage place.
“Oh, is this your bike?”
“Yeah”
“It was stolen from a porch on 10th Ave not too long ago, would you know anything about that?”
“Hey, You’re the third person that’s told me you’ve recognized this bike. I have a receipt for it.”
“Sure you do, where’s it from?”
“Uhhh.. Sharecare.. that place on Broadway.”
“Sorry what did you say it was called?”
“The consignment place on Broadway.”
“You must mean Sports Junkies, but they don’t sell bikes that have bent frames.”
By this time, I could see his skid buddy inching closer in my peripheral vision, and two of the guys from Capital Salvage came out into the alley to watch if anything was going to go down.
“Yeah, well that’s too bad, cause I have a receipt for this bike. This trailer too, I paid over $300 for it”
I look at the dirtied baby trailer, held on with a bungee cord, and think about how its just silly how baby trailer companies don’t provide fit kits for solid axles on their $300 trailers..
“Right…. Well, either way, the bike is stolen. How’s it feel to be a thief AND a liar?”
At that point Kim (who had come out of the coffee shop into the alley) yelled something to the effect of “Way to steal from a young woman!”.
I was livid, but really, there’s nothing I could have done.
Aly already has a new (Norco) cruiser bike, that ICBC will be reimbursing her for… and a skid gets to ride around on a crappy super cycle with a bent frame.
Deck him and have to fight his skid buddy as well?
Stomp the spokes on Aly’s bike?
Get my tools and take back my stainless metric hardware from the rack?
Fists balled up, I had to turn around and walk out of the alley and into the coffee shop.
Pacing back and forth in line I realized I didn’t even want coffee anymore.
I went back outside to talk to him some more, but he was gone.
..so I went home, hopped on my bike, and started cruising all the low alleys (ie at the bottom of the hill by the shop) looking for him.
I had my U lock with me, and just wanted to lock the rear wheel to the frame.
Really that’s all I wanted. It would be worth it to see him trying to carry that sled with his trailer full of cans attached.
I didn’t find him by 6pm, so I gave up and went back to the coffee shop to talk about it with Kim.
The only good thing about this, is that I can now identify one of our cities bicycle thieves.
Still pisses me off though.
Capitol Salvage doesn’t ID their clientele, so all kinds of skids bring all kinds of metals there to be scrapped. Its not surprising to see grocery carts full of aluminum siding there.
Anyways.. I’m walking up, and notice a Green de-badged supercycle cruiser with a baby trailer, leaned up against the dumpster.
(Background: A few weeks ago my girlfriend's sister Aly, was hit by a car along a bike route. While she was taken to the hospital, her boyfriend took her wrecked bike to his back porch. The next day, the tweaked bike was stolen)
I did a double take, and had to go look.
Sure enough, this was Aly’s bike.
I had worked on this thing, and got to know it intimately just a month previous.
It even had my stainless hardware on the rack (nyloc nuts too).
The rear stays were bent and bent back again. The downtube had a big dent.
This bike had been in a car accident. It was tweaked all over.
I inspected it a bit closer.
The baby cart was held on with a bungee cord.
Just as I was thinking about what to do, someone in the capitol salvage yard started yelling.
“HEY HEY HEY, whatcha doin with that bike!”
A graying bearded guy in his 40s comes out of the salvage place.
“Oh, is this your bike?”
“Yeah”
“It was stolen from a porch on 10th Ave not too long ago, would you know anything about that?”
“Hey, You’re the third person that’s told me you’ve recognized this bike. I have a receipt for it.”
“Sure you do, where’s it from?”
“Uhhh.. Sharecare.. that place on Broadway.”
“Sorry what did you say it was called?”
“The consignment place on Broadway.”
“You must mean Sports Junkies, but they don’t sell bikes that have bent frames.”
By this time, I could see his skid buddy inching closer in my peripheral vision, and two of the guys from Capital Salvage came out into the alley to watch if anything was going to go down.
“Yeah, well that’s too bad, cause I have a receipt for this bike. This trailer too, I paid over $300 for it”
I look at the dirtied baby trailer, held on with a bungee cord, and think about how its just silly how baby trailer companies don’t provide fit kits for solid axles on their $300 trailers..
“Right…. Well, either way, the bike is stolen. How’s it feel to be a thief AND a liar?”
At that point Kim (who had come out of the coffee shop into the alley) yelled something to the effect of “Way to steal from a young woman!”.
I was livid, but really, there’s nothing I could have done.
Aly already has a new (Norco) cruiser bike, that ICBC will be reimbursing her for… and a skid gets to ride around on a crappy super cycle with a bent frame.
Deck him and have to fight his skid buddy as well?
Stomp the spokes on Aly’s bike?
Get my tools and take back my stainless metric hardware from the rack?
Fists balled up, I had to turn around and walk out of the alley and into the coffee shop.
Pacing back and forth in line I realized I didn’t even want coffee anymore.
I went back outside to talk to him some more, but he was gone.
..so I went home, hopped on my bike, and started cruising all the low alleys (ie at the bottom of the hill by the shop) looking for him.
I had my U lock with me, and just wanted to lock the rear wheel to the frame.
Really that’s all I wanted. It would be worth it to see him trying to carry that sled with his trailer full of cans attached.
I didn’t find him by 6pm, so I gave up and went back to the coffee shop to talk about it with Kim.
The only good thing about this, is that I can now identify one of our cities bicycle thieves.
Still pisses me off though.