As we have all said before, it’s nice to hear a positive end to end a bad experience.
Last weekend, one of our Penticton BMX club members was working in their garage and stepped away only for a few minutes only to come back and find that someone had stolen their child’s race bike. These bikes are expensive and have specialized parts on them and are tough to replace easily. Not to mention the obvious feeling of being violated with some thief taking personal belongings from your property.
Home insurance is sometimes a catch-22, you can pay high deductible and then have rates go up, but replace the bike and have your child keep racing and move on with life. This family did their diligence and filed a police report and contacted local pawn shops to inform them of the stolen bike in case it showed up.
On Friday, about a week after the theft, they got a call from Mike at Mike’s Pawn Shop here in town to say, “I think the bike you are looking for is here and the guy with it will wait for you to come down.”
Sure enough the bike was there. It was recovered and it was a win-win for the family that lost it a week prior. I want to say thank you to Mike and his staff for going the extra mile on this one. After speaking with him he informed me he avoids buying bikes or pawning them as it continues the cycle of stolen bikes in our community. If there are less people to take a stolen bike to, to get quick cash, the thieves may learn to leave people’s bikes alone. Now, if only we could eliminate all thefts of all kinds.
Anyways, thanks Mike’s Pawn Shop for your effort on this one and having the outlook you do on the bike theft problem in Penticton. It’s nice to know there is a business in town that is looking out for its community and its hard-working citizens. And, it will put a smile back on the face of a child who loved their bike.
Andrew Bayston
President of the Penticton BMX Club