Bike Theft

So supposedly Fat Tire has had problems in the past with people trying to steal bikes from our shop. Mike has caught a few - once by running after the guy, and once just walking through the park (the guy was smoking pot on the grass and Mike just walked up and took the bike back from him).


One of my favorite stories that I heard during training was about a guy stealing a bike while on a bike tour. Supposedly, the guide was talking and one of the guys on the tour just rode off with the bike. Funny thing was that the guy's friend was still there, so the guide just asks the friend, "where is your friend going? he just stole one of our bikes!" And the friend just replies, "Ya... he's been doing a LOT of drugs today." Not only that, but the guy who stole the bike just rode it back to the shop a few hours later. Hilarious.


Well, a few days ago about 5 of us were standing the back of the shop talking, a few more were at the computers, Mike was there, even David Mebane (the owner) was there just hanging out when all of a sudden we here someone scream, "They're stealing the bikes!" We glance out the window and there are about 6 kids around 15 years old on our bikes... at that moment, the shop CLEARS... everyone sprints out the door and the kids just take off. (I'm not sure what I was planning on doing once I caught one, but I was going to run after them as long as I could.) There were probably 7 or 8 huge guy tour guides, plus me, plus anyone else who cared to run after these punk kids. Well, as I go sprinting past, I see David Mebane (the owner) lying on top of one of the kids with the kid in a head lock. Then I see Mike go sailing past on a bike.

So I eventually lose the guy I was chasing after, but as I'm walking back to the shop, I see another guide (John Phillips) with another kid on the ground. John is pretty much IN HIS FACE screaming at him - using every cussword in the book and possibly making up his own. He had body slammed him to the ground, and John was all cut up and I think the kid was shaking. Battle scars. Glorious.

So then the French undercover cops show up, and they are like the coolest most bad a people ever. They just kinda sauntered up with their guns and their street clothes - they take everyone's statement and put the kids in their unmarked vehicle.

We find out later that Mike also caught his guy. Supposedly he chased him for a few blocks until he saw that the kid was starting to get tired. So he chased him a little longer (the kid was on foot; Mike was on a bike) until Mike finally ditched the bike and tackled the kid.

The other ridiculous thing was that David Mebane had actually been watching these kids for a little while. He saw them hanging around and looking shady, so he sat in a corner of the courtyard and was staking them out basically. So when they finally tried something, he dove at them and got one.

All in all, this may have been one of the most exciting things to ever happen in my entire life.

Tour Guides - 1; Punk kids - 0.