What follows is a rare stolen-bike story with a happy ending.
Last week, Randy Damon and I had the pleasure of conducting a bike camp for the Des Moines Bicycle Collective and the Des Moines Police Department. It was a fabulous week for the 10 kids, police officers, and most of all the two instructors.
On Friday morning while loading up bike picnic supplies onto my bike trailer, an off-duty police officer at the Court Avenue Hy-Vee rolled out a story about a store employee—we’ll call him Jacob—who had his bike stolen earlier in the week.
Officer Ned Chiodo said that Jacob didn’t own a bike lock but used a hoodie drawstring to tie up his bike to one of the Hy-Vee bike racks. Okay, crazy, but it’s all Jacob had. As you might expect, the bike was easy pickings. At the end of his shift, Jacob was devastated to see his bike missing—it was his sole transportation to and from work.
And thus, Jacob walked home—to Ankeny—a three-hour plod. And in the morning, Jacob walked back downtown—another three-hour walk. Yes, you read it correctly.
By the following day, Officer Chiodo used some excellent police work and located the stolen bike and the thief—a homeless man who also needed a bike for work transportation.
No charges were filed and the bike was returned.
I volunteered to Officer Chiodo that the Collective would happily provide Jacob with a sturdy lock. And that same day, Officer Chiodo drove Jacob to the Collective, where the staff provided a secure U-lock to prevent this from happening again to Jacob. The free lock moved Jacob to tears.
This is what the Collective does and we are so pleased to be part of this community. And this story and being part of the DMPD bike camp amplifies the great work by our men and women in blue.
Jacob’s story—related just minutes later to the bike camp kids—provided an ideal teaching moment for the kids in the bike camp. Some kids suggested jail for the bike thief—he took something that wasn’t his. That’s wrong.
“But what good would that do?” replied one of the kids. “He’s already homeless.”
“And he needed a bike to get to work, too.”