After several months and a trip to the Philippines, a stolen bike finds its way back to its owner
It may have taken over half a year and almost 27,000 kilometers, but a Toronto man has been reunited with his previously stolen bicycle. Warren Hull is one of the lucky ones to have his precious “Tiffany” (dubbed so due to its telltale color) back. As previously reported by CBC, roughly only 1% of bike thefts in Toronto end with the property being returned to its owner. Hull shared the story of Tiffany’s journey with CBC news.
Hull, a mountain bike enthusiast of over 20 years, kept his tiffany-blue Trek Stache bike locked up in is condo’s storage locker. After a week in storage, Hull went down to get Tiffany, only to find that she was missing.
"I was kind of dumbfounded," said Hull.
After contacting his building’s security, he discovered that the bike was stolen on March 24th, by two thieves.
"You think it's gone," Hull told CBC Toronto of watching the security footage. "Then seeing someone actually walking out with your bike, it irked me more."
After Hull reported the theft to police, he processed to do some detective work of his own. Contacting local bike shops about a missing part and scanning social media for any sign of Tiffany.
"I was missing that part, and this person had ordered it in the span of a day of me realizing it was gone," said Hull. "It was just too coincidental, so through social media, through Facebook, Instagram, I searched and searched and searched. I found a gentleman matching that name and his profile picture was of him on a mountain bike so I put two and two together and I guess he was my main suspect."
Hull didn’t want to accuse the man without actually seeing the bike in photos, even though the parts matched. Early August however, Tiffany popped up in the man’s photos, giving Hull the evidence he needed.
"I was yelling through the condo, 'Are you kidding me? Tiffany, Tiffany, it's found!' to my girlfriend," said Hull, adding that the bike was discovered in the Philippines.
"I guess that was the final straw on my end," Hull told CBC Toronto. "I'm seeing it but it's also in the Philippines. It's not like it's in Markham, or Kingston or Ottawa. It's in the Philippines."
Apparently, the man had shipped Tiffany to his sister-in-law, and she had tagged him in a photo, thanking him when the bike arrived in the Philippines. Hull then took to social media, and the man decided to send the bike back to him.
"It came back two weeks later and I ended up meeting the guy who had bought it," said Hull. "He was very apologetic, very emotional. It was kind of surreal to get it back after an around-the-world trip."
After getting the bike back on Sept. 1, Hull phoned police to let them know.
“The first question the cop asked, do I want to charge him? No I don't want to charge the guy, I got my bike back," said Hull. "He learnt his lesson, why am I going to charge him? He didn't take it. Maybe he knew it was stolen, maybe he didn't, I don't know."