Bikes are no longer kids' stuff

I read it in a magazine last week. It’s satisfying news for anyone, like me, who has ever had a bicycle stolen.

According to The Week magazine, “Toronto’s most prolific bicycle thief has finally been arrested.” A seedy-looking used-bike shop owner, the aptly named Igor Kenk, was busted when police used a couple of new bicycles as bait and did a stakeout on a city street.

The planted bikes weren’t grabbed, but they spotted Kenk and an accomplice ripping off a couple other bikes nearby. Police later raided Kenk’s warehouse and found about 3,000 stolen bicycles ... along with “large stashes of cocaine, crack and marijuana.”

No, I’ll never see my 1963 Sears or my 1995 Trek again, but I took great satisfaction in knowing that stolen bicycles are no longer seen as just an occasional cause of childhood sadness, nothing more than a harsh lesson in life for children.

Bicycles have been big business for years. My local shop owner, as well as several of fellow shop owners in my corner of the world, are saying they’ve done about the equivalent of four years’ worth of their normal business in only the 12-18 months since gas prices started climbing.

Some people are routinely buying bicycles, these days, for as much as I paid ($2,000) for my first brand new car – a Ford Maverick in 1971. Bicycle theft just isn’t kid stuff anymore, and it’s about time police start getting serious about it.

-- Wordsmith 1953