A Red Deer mom who was determined not to let the trail go cold recovered her son’s stolen bike on Wednesday in less than an hour.
Leah Lauscher said her 13-year-old son discovered his unlocked bike was stolen from outside Parkland Mall close to noon. After she reported it to police, she decided to drive around to see if she could spot it.
“Sitting at home and just waiting definitely wasn’t going to help,” Lauscher said Thursday.
She drove downtown because she had heard of someone else finding their stolen bike there. She quickly spotted a man walking the bike on the sidewalk on Little Gaetz Avenue.
“All of a sudden they were right in front of me walking towards my car.”
She parked, pulled out her cellphone to capture video evidence if she didn’t get the bike back, then got out of her vehicle and asked for the bike back.
In the video the man says someone just gave it to him, and he dropped the bike while trying to hide his face from the camera.
“It was not planned. I just saw them and thought — oh my gosh, there it is — and jumped out.”
Lauscher said at that moment she didn’t think to call and wait for police who would likely have other priorities, and risk losing sight of the bike.
“We were really, really lucky and I don’t ever want to do that again, thinking about it now. But it worked out okay.”
Lauscher said she was in a nice part of downtown where there were other people around. If it happened elsewhere, she probably would not have approached him.
“Normally I would let the police do their thing. I have no desire to confront people. If they had looked maybe scarier, I wouldn’t have. It was just so in the moment — there it is. Jump out and get it.”
By 12:41 p.m. she called her son to let him know she had his bike, minus his bike helmet.
“He went from a very sad little boy to — oh my gosh mom. I’m his hero for a little while. I’ll take that. Don’t mess with mom.”
Her advice to others, and her son, was to lock up their bikes. Her son didn’t usually go places where he needed to lock up his bike so he didn’t have one to use on Wednesday. And write down the serial number in case a bike does go missing.
szielinski@reddeeradvocate.com
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