by Becca Lemire
Now that it’s spring again (er…sometimes..) it’s time to bring our bikes out of the basement, get a tune up and perhaps a shiny new bell, and get back on! Or if you’re a hardcore year-round biker, or just really broke and can’t afford the TTC in the winter, wipe that snow off your gears and throw on some cute shorts! With the recent release of KENK, a new Graphic Portrait of Toronto’s most notorious bike thief, we felt it was appropriate to persuade patrons of Trinity Bellwoods Park to share their own personal bike thievery stories, to remind us to lock it up and be smart with our cherished urban transportation. I love my bike! What did you do when yours got stolen?

Ryan Moleiro
Boy do I have a story for you! You better sit down. I got my bike in Florida about 2 years ago at a flea market. My parents help me put it on the roof of my car, and I drove it home, yes, all the way. 1 year later, it’s Halloween, I had a shitty lock, and it was locked up outside of a house in Parkdale, and the next day it was gone. I became obsessed with finding it and went on a quest, stalking all green bikes [Ryan’s bike is green]. About a year and a half later, I found it locked up on Adelaide! I wrote a letter, taped it to the bike, and went by every day for a week and the letter was still there. So, I went to an auto garage around the corner, and they cut the lock for me. So I got it back! Amazing, eh? 

Tristan
I locked up a decent mountain bike, nothing fancy, to a fence outside of my studio at Queen and Dufferin. Later on, it was gone without a trace, except the lock was still together. Weird. I didn’t do anything about it, I just got another bike. [On the subject of Igor Kenk] I used to get my bike fixed by him. He was always really cool. We talked about Opera.

Juan
I had this awful, terrible bike. It was really a blessing in disguise that it got stolen. I got a flat tire outside of the Long & McQuade at Bloor and Dovercourt, and the next day it was gone. It’s hard to believe someone actually stole it, because it was such a piece of crap. This was a few weeks ago, and I’ve been using a loaner bike from Tristan since then. Hey, check out my band!

Caroline
I free-locked my bike in the foyer of my building, and this sketch bag who would often come into the building to harass this girl, stole it. I guess sketch bag didn’t notice my frame was locked to my wheel, and left it in a different part of the building. The super found it and must have done a Google search with the brand name and color, and because I had posted an ad on Craigslist right when it went missing, he found my ad and gave it back!  

Sarah
Last summer, in about the span of a month, I had each wheel taken one at a time while it was locked up at the U of T campus. That is all.