$70,000 in stolen bicycles recovered in Calgary
Police are hoping to reunite more than 40 victims of theft with their stolen property after a bust in the city’s northeast led to a large recovery of bicycles.
Tips from the public led officers to a home in the 1400 block of 43 Street N.E. last Thursday where police discovered a stolen vehicle and multiple stolen licence plates.
But when searching a detached garage on the property, officers also found 41 high-end mountain and road racing bikes — and even a stolen tandem bicycle.
The bikes were likely stolen from storage lockers inside condo or apartment complexes across the city in the last year, police said.
The $70,000 in bikes include models from GURU, Specialized, Scott, Kona, Regal, Norco, Trek, Niner, Giant, Cannondale, Rocky Mountain, Cervelo, Santa Cruz and Felt.
Seven bikes were returned to their owners before police released details of the case, and officers returned another four bikes on Thursday.
“We were working with bylaw services on some neighbourhood complaints in the area and when we went to look into concerns raised, we found a stolen vehicle and six stolen plates,” said Const. Chris Langham with the police ser- vice’s district four office.
“Continuing the investigation, we got entry into the detached garage where we found all the bikes,” he said. “We were surprised at what we saw. A lot of these bikes are high-end (with) custom, aftermarket parts put on.”
No charges have been laid and police are asking the public for information and tips in the case.
While the investigation is still early and ongoing, they are not ruling out the case being much larger than it already is. Police believe the garage itself was the scene of a series of offences.
“A lot of people would take this property to an individual and that individual would, in turn, give them cash, or drugs,” said Langham.
“From there, the bikes would get sold off online or again, traded to someone else for cash. I’m certain these people were organized (in) what they were doing,” he said.
“We are certainly looking for more information from the general public or anyone who has information on who had access to the garage.”
The property where the bikes were recovered is a rental property and Langham said police are having a hard time confirming who had rented the property and who was occupying it.
Police are asking Calgarians who believe their stolen bike has been recovered in the bust to contact Const. Langham or Const. Hostland at 403-428-6400 or by emailing pol4413@calgarypolice.ca or pol4460@calgarypolice.ca.
Don’t, however, be surprised if you can’t get through to police immediately.
A police spokesperson said the service received hundreds of emails on Thursday from people sending in pictures of their missing bikes.
“There’s definitely some owners in Calgary that want their property back,” Langham said.
Anyone with information about the thefts of the bikes is asked to contact the officers above, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-8477 or www.calgarycrimestoppers.org.