For sale: your bike.
A 34-year-old Calgary man faces charges after police recovered three stolen bicycles valued at over $9,000 that were posted for sale online.
On July 7, the man was arrested and charged with trafficking in property obtained by crime when police located the high-end bicycles from Canmore and Calgary on the popular classifieds website Kijiji in the Calgary area section.
The bicycles were stolen in April and July and had been properly secured by owners.
Police posed as potential buyers and made contact with the seller. A meeting was set up and a bust made when he showed up with the bicycles.
The man has since been released from custody and is set to appear in Airdrie Provincial Court on Aug. 18.
Canmore RCMP Cpl. Adam Palmer said stolen bicycles are a “huge problem” in the community. He added that at least one of the three bikes was stolen from Canmore, but police face other problems with the stolen bikes.
“One of the challenges is (the theft victims) don’t know enough about their bike,” said Palmer. “They don’t know enough for us to return it … if we don’t have a serial number or identifying stickers.
Palmer underlined the challenge as RMCP are currently trying to locate the owner of one of the bicycles: a Giant Defy.
“There’s thousands of those bikes out there, so we just don’t know,” said Palmer.
“Everyone has a cell phone now. Take a picture of your bike and of the serial number and it helps us return it to you and it takes two seconds to do.”
There have been a lot more bicycles stolen from the area this year, but Palmer said there’s a portion of the public not reporting it.
“A lot of the problem is people don’t report it to police … It doesn’t matter how expensive it is or its value, they need to report it,” he said.
Palmer said the RCMP do have a plan to help mitigate the stolen bicycle problem, but it’s still in the infancy stage.
Police want to remind the public to ensure bicycles are properly secured and to record serial numbers and other identifying features.
Police request the public’s help in providing information on these occurrences or any criminal activity, call 1-800-222-8477 or online at tipsubmit.com.
The Outlook will update the story when more information becomes available.
