A SAD CYCLE
Agonizing theft of late medic’s prized bike
THE THIEF who stole the bicycle from FDNY Emergency Medical Technician Ray Zimlin’s car shattered the rear window — and a few hearts, too.
The $5,200 two-wheeler, loaned to Zimlin by the widow of his late colleague paramedic Mike Sclafani, remained missing Thursday as cops hunted the callous crook who boosted the bike last weekend.
“The bike is Mike,” said Zimlin, 24. “It’s the last thing he left. It was his prized possession. It was something he was really proud of. He was very into cycling, racing, running, and doing triathlons.
“It’s just a thing. But it embodies Mike.”
Sclafani’s wife Monica provided the Cervelo racing bike with its black Bontrager tires for Zimlin to ride with several Station 14 colleagues in her husband’s honor at the Oct. 1 Mighty Man Montauk race.
Two weeks later, Zimlin parked his 2005 Nissan Murano — with the bike beneath a blanket in the back — near Lincoln Hospital on E. 149th St. when he reported for work in the Bronx.
When he returned a short time later, the window was broken and the bicycle gone.
Surveillance footage showed a burglar smashing his way inside with a pipe, pulling the pricey bike from under the blanket and taking off.
“His wife is devastated,” said Zimlin, a Staten Island resident. “I think we all are. I had been hanging onto it and riding it intermittently.”
Adding to Zimlin’s anguish was Monica Sclafani’s plan to one day turn the racing bike over to their 4-year-old daughter Sevilla.
“Now I regret not giving it back to her right away,” said Zimlin. “I feel like I let (the Sclafanis) down.”
Sclafani, who died Aug. 16 at the age of 39, was an avid marathon runner and a member of both the FDNY Road Runners Club and the Taconic Running Club near his home in suburban Larchmont.
Sclafani was honored this past May for his part in saving the life of a volunteer who suffered a near-fatal heart attack at a South Bronx basketball game.
Zimlin and other EMS members launched an appeal via Instagram for people to keep an eye out for the stolen bike, either on the road or if the thief is trying to sell it.
His post of a picture of the missing bike was shared more than 100 times, and he encouraged others to either share the photo or stay vigilant.
“I’m hopeful that it will be found,” said Zimlin. “I mean, I’m optimistic. I’ve been going to every bike shop in the South Bronx and Harlem asking if anything came in since it was stolen.”