If you are missing a bicycle, the police may have it.
Cpl. Laurel Kading said St. Albert RCMP has more than 30 bikes stored in its shed right now. The bikes were collected over the summer and the identities of their owners aren’t known. If they are not claimed, they will be turned over to the city in October and auctioned off, she said.
“We have a lot of bicycles turned in every year that we cannot reunite with people,” she said. “They are unidentified and we don’t have serial numbers to tell whom to give them back to.”
Kading said another 52 bicycles were sent off for auctioning this spring. These bikes would have been found in the city over the fall and winter. She now hopes that people who had their bike go missing will report that to the RCMP.
People can drop off a description in writing or by fax at the detachment. The police will then check if the description matches one of the bicycles in its shed and call the person back if it does.
“But we don’t want people all showing up at the front counter and asking because we won’t take them out to the shed and walk them through all the bikes,” she said.
She added that she is not sure whether the bikes went missing somewhere else and were dropped off in the city, or if people don’t know to look for them with the police.
But St. Albert RCMP and Fire Services will also partner for a Bicycle Identification Day on Saturday, Sept. 26. During the event, officers and firefighters will show people how to find the serial number on their bikes. That way, they can write it down and hold on to it in case the bike ever goes missing, said Kading. Police will also help people engrave their own identification on their bicycles.
“If it’s a specific thing they engrave in there then it’s easy for them to tell it to us if the bike goes missing,” she said. “And if we find the bike we can then give it back to them. Hopefully, that will make it harder for those bikes to go missing.”
The event will be held from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Fire Hall Three on 100 Giroux Rd. Every resident is encouraged to attend the event.
