Wounded veterans’ custom cycles stolen in Anchorage

— Someone broke into a UHaul trailer in a downtown parking lot and stole five bikes belonging to wounded veterans in Alaska to train for a race, the group that organized the trip said.

The bikes are valued in the tens of the thousands of dollars and include one custom-made for Staff Sgt. Matt DeWitt, who lost both arms below the elbow to a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2003, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

The bike, which police said is valued at $19,000, has controls that allow the double-amputee to shift with his knees and brake with his back.

“No one else can really ride it,” said DeWitt, of Weare, N.H., who had used the bike only a few times before it disappeared.

The 26-person group arrived Sunday and Monday to begin the trip, sponsored by the Tatitlek Corp.

Tiffini Skuce, of Ride 2 Recovery, the nonprofit that organized the trip, said participants are mostly veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, with some suffering from traumatic physical injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injuries.

DeWitt said the group spent Monday riding trails at Kincaid Park.

That night, the bikes were locked in a U-Haul in a downtown hotel parking lot, Skuce said.

They were last seen around midnight, and when riders began unloading the bikes the next morning, they noticed the lock and some of the bikes gone.

“It’s heartbreaking because it’s injured veterans who are trying to carry on and better themselves and then their bikes are gone,” she said.

Skuce said the group filed a police report Tuesday. Rentals temporarily replaced other bikes so riders could still train, but they’re not as nice as the ultralight, high-end bikes belonging to the riders, she said.

Also, DeWitt, who is training for a longdistance, high-altitude race in Colorado, can’t ride a rental.

According to the police Castro said all the bikes have “Ride 2 Recovery” stickers.

“Not a way to welcome them to Alaska,” Skuce said.