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Red Deer mom takes back son’s stolen bike from thieves

Aug 30, 2018 | 3:00 PM

A Red Deer woman took matters into her own hands after thieves stole her 13-year-old son’s bike.

Leah Lauscher says her son was out for a bike ride and needed to use the washroom, so parked his bike outside Parkland Mall before heading inside around 11:45 a.m.

Because it was an unplanned stop, Lauscher says her son unfortunately didn’t have his bike lock with him.

“Of course when he came out, it was missing,” says Lauscher. “He gave me a call and I went down and talked to security to check to see if they had any video surveillance and to report that it went missing. Then I called the police and made a police report, then I dropped him off at home and figured it literally just happened so maybe if I drive around, maybe I can spot it.”

 

 

She says it took less than an hour to spot the bike.

“I literally just happened upon it,” states Lauscher. “I figured I would drive downtown, take a look around and I came down the hill from the mall, straight onto Little Gaetz and just past the Royal Bank and there they were. They were literally just walking with the bike, so I pulled into a parking spot and jumped out and yeah, that’s my son’s bike.”

It was then that Lauscher decided to take cell phone video of her encounter with the people in possession of her son’s bike.

“I didn’t know what would happen and [if] they would give me the bike back,” she exclaims. “Just recording it was to get their faces, show that my bike was there and I suppose if it didn’t go well or in my favour, I would have video as to what went down when I approached them.”

Lauscher adds she was shocked to find the bike and to find it so quickly.

“The fact that they were right there in front of me, I couldn’t believe it,” she exclaims. “I kind of jumped out without really thinking of what the possibilities of how this outcome could be. I just knew that this was my chance right now to get it back, ‘There they are, I will never get that opportunity again.’ It was very rushed, I didn’t put much thought into it.”

In hindsight, Lauscher says she wouldn’t necessarily recommend people do what she did but is grateful things worked out this time.

“It’s too bad that our society, you have to lock things up or people take them,” says Lauscher. “I was disappointed and he was so upset and it must have been a really hard phone call for him to make to me because he would have known that I would have said the same thing, like ‘Why wasn’t it locked up?’ but it just made me mad that we can’t have nice things without having to worry that somebody else is going to take your things from you and that’s very frustrating now-a-days.”

Lauscher says she and her family have now taken RCMP’s recommendation to record the serial numbers of their bikes so if they are ever stolen again, police can track them or find them easier.