B.C. bike thieves caught within local RCMP station

Thanks to a rallying of support on social media, a family in the Vancouver Island community of Duncan, B.C., the Campbell River Mirror reports, was recently reunited with a stolen bike in a very satisfying manner that saw the thieves caught red-handed, too.

According to the Mirror, the drama began when Adrian Cools returned home and noticed that his daughter Kaia’s bike had been lifted from the family’s driveway. The Cools family, however, had an alarm system installed that was tethered to surveillance video. The moment the thieves went into action, so did the cameras. Two women were reportedly seen on video, taking the bike. Reviewing the footage, Adrian and his wife, Natasha, then posted it to social media, hoping that somebody may recognize the culprits.

Quite beyond their expectations, the posted video spread like wildfire—with 200 shares in 45 minutes, the Mirror reported.

Eyewitness reports started pouring in. “One of my girlfriends sent me a message,” Natasha Cools said, “and said, ‘These two are down by the police station right now.’ So, my husband said he was going down there.”

Arriving at the local RCMP detachment, Adrian Cools saw that his daughter’s bike was sitting outside, resting on the building’s front steps. The two women who had stolen the bike were there “because someone had stolen a backpack,” Natasha said, “and said to my husband, ‘Why are you here?'” When Adrian told them, saying that he had seen the pair steal his daughter’s ride right from his property, one of the two women fled. Adrian blocked the door to prevent the other from doing the same, and then showed an attending police officer the video footage. A swift arrest was made.

Noting that drug problems in the area have caused an uptick in such thefts, Natasha credits social media completely with the matter’s very fast resolution. “People were messaging me their names and where they stay,” she said. “I said to my husband that I wish all crime was this easy.”

Still, the brazen act of taking a stolen bike on a trip to a police detachment, she said, is baffling.

“Who steals a bike and goes to the police station?”