‘The saga began’: St. Thomas community rallies to retrieve former MP’s stolen bicycle

St. Thomas residents worked together to find former MP Karen Vecchio's stolen bike. CTV London's Brent Lale reports.

Karen Vecchio spent 10 years serving the citizens of St. Thomas as a Member of Parliament. This week, the residents returned the favour by helping her retrieve her stolen bicycle.

Vecchio went to her backyard Tuesday, June 24, to check on her garden, when she noticed her bike, along with her husband Mike’s, were missing from their unused chicken coop.

“You can see over here, the coop is quite accessible to the [train] tracks,” recalled Mike. “Someone came in from there and took them. We called the police and then Karen posted on social media.”

Along with a photo of her aqua-coloured bicycle, Karen wrote, “If you see someone riding this bike and it isn’t me, please ask them to return to the owner!!!”

“We had photos of the bike, and I just thought, people in this community will recognize that I have been riding it around the community,” said Karen. “The reason I bought it with such a strange colour was because it was so recognizable. I put it out there on social media and the saga began.”

This is where things started to take an interesting turn.

“It just it blew up, the number of shares, people calling us, and text messages,” said Karen. “I could not believe how many people really were paying attention to what was going on in the community. I was getting photos of the person at the bank. I was getting a person who was in Walmart who had called the police.”

That person was Dusty Brown.

“Police showed up to try and apprehend it back, but unfortunately there was no registered serial number,” said Brown. “We followed her to the Wendy’s and that’s when the police actually cut her off and stopped her. She was only there for about maybe two- or three-minutes yelling and screaming at the cops and got on the bike and took off. There was no concrete evidence that could pinpoint this bike to be Karen’s at the time, as much as we all knew it was.”

The woman reportedly sold the bike to another man for $10. He was seen riding it down Talbot Street and around the city. Sightings continued until about 9 p.m., which was about 15 hours after it was initially taken.

“There was a post where this person was only six minutes away and I was getting posts of this location,” said Karen. “They’re currently at The Bistro and they had just left there at the laundromat. I told Mike we have go. If you know me, I just thought we can just deal with this person. I thought, okay, we’re going to get in the truck and we’re just going to let them know that we just want my bike back.”

While out in the city, someone sent a message

“It said, ‘We got your bike,’” said Karen. “I don’t even know these people who have my bike. People contacted a friend of ours and said, ‘Let Karen know that we have found her bike,’ and returned it to us.”

While Karen got her bike back, Mike was still not confident his was going to be as easy to find. His was just plain black, not as easily identifiable.

“I woke up Wednesday morning and was having my coffee on the back porch when the St. Thomas city police texted me and said they had located it in the dog park on the west end of St. Thomas there,” said Mike.

He went to the police station and got it back.

“You feel really angry when stuff is taken from you and when people are on your property,” said Mike. “I honestly never thought we’d get them back, but to watch everything happen through that day, seeing our friends and people that we didn’t even know, following her bike around St. Thomas throughout the day, it made it a happy ending.”

The Vecchio’s have now registered their bicycles.

“We now have our serial numbers, and we actually have it on something called 519 Garage,” said Karen. “If something’s found, people can identify it and let you know”

With Karen recently retired, the two bought the bikes to go for a 45-minute ride after dinner and to use as a physical and mental health aid.

“It was just incredible watching the community come together for something like my bike,” said Karen.

While not every citizen may have received the same sort of help, Brown said it was clear why everyone was looking for the bike.

“It’s Karen,” said Brown. “She does remarkable things for the community and the neighbourhood already. It’s obviously trying to try and get back to her as much as you can.”

Now that they have them home safely, the Vecchios have also learned a valuable lesson about keeping them more secure.

“We’re keeping them in the living room at this point now,” joked Mike. “Our goal today is to head to our local Home Hardware and get some, some locking equipment and locks. They’ll be much more secure the next time we leave them outside.”