The Toronto Star is reporting about a 31-year old man who caught a 16 year old stealing his bike. Read all about it here.
A 16-year-old boy remains in hospital after a 31-year-old man caught him trying to steal his bike last night, police say.
Emergency medical personnel were called to Bloor St. and Dundas St. W. after the teen was punched in the neck during a scuffle with the man shortly after 8 p.m. yesterday, said Det. Niels Sondergaard. The boy was transported to St. Michael’s Hospital with serious, but non life-threatening injuries.
The man was treated for a broken bone before being questioned and released by police.
18 comments
I’ll have to add ‘a punch in the neck’ to my anti-bike theft repertoire.
As for the picture, I saw a motorcycle (Kawasaki Ninja, to be exact) employ the same idea. The owner had put 3 bicycle U-locks on his back tire.
I saw a guy stealing a bike today. I was riding down Seaforth Ave. in Parkdale, and he was using an axe to break apart two bikes chained to a fence. There were lots of people around, it was the middle of the day. Feeling obliged, I circled around and asked him if it was his bike. Then his friend, who I hadn’t noticed until now, looked at me and said, “What d’ya gotta be so nosy for? Being nosy gets people in trouble”. I took that as a sign to leave, but not without yelling that I hoped someone would try and stop him from stealing my bike.
Christine, if the guy was wielding an axe I’d stay away. I might call the cops but I wouldn’t interrupt an axe-wielding bike thief….
I say we work up a crowd of cyclists and ride around St. Mikes ringing our bells and calling for his head…
OK, so that’s not so workable but I would like to see some form of perp walk here.
I think bike theft touches people in a far more real way than an Enron exec doing creative accounting.
I think catching a bicycle thief is such a rarity that this guy should be made an example of. I want to see his face.
– Angry cyclist guy
PS – If you see someone stealing a bike, call the cops discretely, that what your tax dollars are paying for.
the kid deserved it.
I saw a guy stealing a bike yesterday by Ryerson Univ. in broad daylight. He had a hammer and was wacking away at the u-lock, until it broke. I didn’t have a cell phone, but I went and stood right beside him, and looked for a cop. The guy started “acting” like his lock had jammed, and then just rode away on the bike.
(no cops came by).
If I would have had a camera, I would have taken his photo. All they need to do is make bicyle lock-up areas with a CAMERA on them! Duh!
Wow, I guess these are the people who agree that Israel’s response has been ‘measured’. And I thought that they only read the Sun.
A ‘punch in the neck’ can paralyze the victim, and victim is definitely the term required here. Did you notice the age of the victim? That’s a kid. When I was 16 I did some stupid and dishonest things, should I be grateful that the vigiliantes so much in evidence didn’t shoot me for it?
Someone who thinks that someone viciously attacking a kid half their age physically over a $500 bike is OK has a lot of growing up to do themselves.
Dan,
I guess you never had a bike stolen. The value is less than your deductable, so it’s all out of pocket as far as insurance goes. And a bike becomes as personal as a horse, (pehaps for many of the same reasons) and it is still a hanging offence to steal a horse. I feel that it shold be the same for a bike.
AMH
Don’t mess with other people’s properity, have respect and realise how many people depend on their bikes for transportation. I’m glad the kid got punched, I don’t feel sorry for him. I would love to hear more about people doing something about this petty annoying crime. Criminals make so little off these bikes but they cost the owners money that they obviously don’t have, otherwise I might use other transportation than my bike. I need my bike to get to work to pay my bills, and if some 16 year old is trying to steal it, i’m aiming for the neck.
In answer to the original Dan– I have the greatest respect for those who, after reflection, have responded to and form of violation of their rights, from theft to oppression, in a genuinely non-violent manner, by forgiving the perpetrator and trying to return good for evil. Likewise, I respect those who find, after reflection, that they need (for whatever reason) to defend their rights by force. It seems to me that if you violate someone’s rights, you take that risk. If you go around stealing bicycles, you may meet someone for whom a the loss of a bicycle means something serious, such as their kids doing without for a week or so.
If that happens, and you resist their attempts to defend their property and take you into custody, then the person who arrests you has a strong incentive to subdue you as efficiently as possible, before you produce a weapon. If you choose to steal bicycles and then resist lawful arrest, then you take that risk.
First of all, let me get this straight: according to the reports I’ve read, the cyclist didn’t just come up to the kid and punch him. He simply tried to make a citizen arrest and the kid started to fight. Notice that he broke the guy’s bone. Victim, my ass!
Secondly, a bicycle is so much more than its value in cash. It’s personal. I worked hard to customize my mind: it’s going to be impossible to replace! Not to mention the fact that bike theft is so frequent nowdays, that you may count on losing a bicycle a month if you leave it locked up outside: now, the monetary expense and the frustration quickly add up, don’t they?
16-year-olds should have enough brains in their heads to know that stealing is wrong. It’s not an excuse.
Um, correction: line 2 in second paragraph in the post above should read “…to customize my ride…”.
Yeah, having had a bike stolen in the past, and also having won a “door prize” in the past, I know the feeling. Riding bike as a commuter in the city is a fundamental thing – it involves having made personal choices about things like sustainable transportation, pollution, efficiency, exercise/health, financial investment, and of course safety. Having your bike stolen, or being knocked off your bike by a careless motorist is a personal assault on yourself.
If I came across someone trying to steal my bike, I would probably feel it was within my rights to exercise force to protect my property and my own safety (in case the theif had a weapon). The kid should have known better, and probably now does since he was caught red-handed.
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Let’s stop making excuses for the bad behaviour of others. If someone tries to take something of mine, and I catch them, they are going to be made to feel genuinely sorry for what they did.
My first response will be anger. If they respond in a genuinely contrite way, they will be forgiven.
However, if they make a threat in return, I will follow with action that will override their threat, because they can only respond to such.
There are people who are not good people, and we have to respond in an appropriate way. It’s my decision how to respond to someone else’s maliciousness against me, within certain confines.
Holding his or her hand isn’t one of them.
i was just robbed of my bike by two people that were aroun 16-17 i was on the bike at the time and they kept scaring me. im only twelve and i was crying for an hour. it was a 500-600 dollar bike, dont think im spoiled because biking is what i LOVE to do. i ride every day. these two guys got up to me and my friend. they asked us to use our bikes, we sed no. they kept askin us to use them and we got scared. we thot they had a gun so we let them use them. they flew off. i called the police with him but they didnt find them yet. we live in montreal and i bike EVERYWher wat am i to do now?
This one makes sence “One’s first step in wisdom is to kuesstion everything – and one’s last is to come to terms with everything.”
Ok… I have had a $3000.00 bike stolen from me, I had a u-lock through my frame, back tire, and the bike rack. I had a cord lock looped around my front tire attached to my u-lock. I went into west edmonton mall for 20 minutes, came out and it was gone. I’m 19 years old, male I would never have hurt the kid who was trying to steal my bike. I worked for months at mc donalds for that bike too. $3000.00, $6000.00, or even $10,000.00 compares to a human life. That is someones baby. But he he I got my bike back. I pulled up to it on my cheap walmart bike, on his left side I kicked the disc rotor bent it and he wasnt going nowhere. I asked him politely for my bike back he was more than happy to oblige. He was scared, I frequent my local gym. lol