Mounties have emptied a warehouse of bicycles belonging to a controversial cycle rescue program that claims to buy back stolen merchandise from thieves in New Westminster, B.C.
Members of the North Vancouver RCMP's Property Crime Section removed 153 bikes - many of them high end - from the suburban facility November 14.
Cpl. Marlene Morton said a high number of bike thefts in North Vancouver led them to the facility. The bikes are now in a North Vancouver warehouse.
The detachment is asking victims of bike theft to review its list of recovered bikes.
If you believe your bike is on the list, send an email to nvstolenbikes@rcmp-grc.gc.ca with the make, model, colour and any unique markings.
No charges have been laid. Morton said their priority is reuniting the bikes with their rightful owners.
Morton said bike theft is increasing in North Vancouver. Her own $2,000 bike was stolen from her driveway after leaving it unattended for 10 minutes.
"It can happen so fast."
Helping or hurting?
CTV News previously reported the man who operates the New Westminster warehouse is Gordon Blackwell, the owner of Bike Rescue, a controversial program that reunites stolen bikes with their owners.
Blackwell, who has a criminal record for fraud in Ontario, was handed a cease and desist order by New Westminster bylaw officers in June, after the city learned he did not have a business permit to operate the business.
His program claims to have returned 256 stolen bikes, finding the stolen merchandise by scouring the internet for "too good to be true bike deals," and purchasing them back from thieves. He tries to reunite the bike with its original owner but resells the bikes when he can't find them. Several people have discovered him selling their stolen bikes from his warehouse.
A day after his warehouse was emptied by police, Blackwell wrote a blog post on bikerescue.org saying he'd turned over all of the bikes in his New Westminster facility, as well as additional lockers in Coquitlam.
"Now, the RCMP have effectively ended any chance of the program restarting as I am left with a debt load of over $20,000 and no means to recover that unless they choose to return the hundred of bikes that will clear their vetting process."
Blackwell said he shut down the Bike Rescue program September 30, although he "continued on a very limited basis to investigate a few more bikes." He thanked anyone who had been involved in the program.
"Those who have had bikes returned to them, supporters, and critics, thank you for raising the awareness level of the epidemic plague that bike theft is in our region. I hope that some one will in some way be able to pick up where I have left off and do a more effective job."
Ongoing investigation
Bike Rescue has been investigated by several Metro Vancouver law enforcement agencies, including the Vancouver and New Westminster Police forces.
Last spring, cyclist Bryan Powell told CTV News he found his stolen Rocky Mountain bike for sale at Blackwell's warehouse, where the cyclist says he tried to sell him his own bike back for $1,000. Powell called police and Blackwell gave up the bike.
In 2008, the city of Coquitlam discovered Blackwell was operating his bike business out of a storage locker. RCMP later went in and seized dozens of stolen bikes.
With files from CTV British Columbia's Lisa Rossington
