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  • Amanda Lewis
  • Fri October 18 2013
  • Posted Oct 18, 2013

DES MOINES, Iowa —A downtown Des Moines bicycle rental company is reporting six bikes have disappeared in the last two days.

The report to Des Moines police was made on Wednesday.

Carl Voss of the Bicycle Collective reported that all six were rented using the same credit card. The bikes were rented at one of four downtown automated bike racks designed for short-term rentals.

Voss told police he has been running the rental service for three years and has never had a bike stolen.

Voss told police that in all the missing bikes were valued at about $7,000. Voss said he contacted the owner of the credit card who said the card had likely been stolen.

The police report shows two of the bikes were found abandoned at a liquor store on Hubbell Avenue in east Des Moines.

Look for more on this story coming up on KCCI-TV, KCCI.com and our mobile website m.kcci.com and apps.



Read more: http://www.kcci.com/news/central-iowa/police-investigate-mystery-of-disappearing-downtown-bikes/-/9357080/22490840/-/n8jaeiz/-/index.html#ixzz2i4yt3eXw

Getting right to the point: The last three of the six B-cycles have been recovered. One was filthy muddy, two have banged up fenders. But otherwise okay.

The story: Clayton Mudge, our B-cycle tech, spotted a guy ride in on bike #398 and park it near the 7th and Grand B-station. Clayton called the DMPD, then hung around until the police arrived. The suspect was handcuffed and arrested. The suspect claimed he didn't steal the bike but found it at the QT near Iowa Methodist.

A few minutes later while in a police car, the suspect conveniently remembered where two more bikes were located. Those were found beneath the Fleur viaduct and to the west along the railroad tracks.

In all, more than $2,000 was racked up on the stoled credit card over three days—not counting the value of 6 B-cycles ($7,800).

Now those 20 extra bikes. I swear, this was not a planted story!

The KCCI story also generated about 20 bike donations today to our shop.

Thanks for everyone's interest in our B-cycle program.

#1 - dsmbikecollective posted Oct 18, 2013


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