Good Samaritan goes the extra mile after finding stolen bike
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PORTLAND, Ore. - A Northeast Portland woman was reunited with her beloved bike - nearly a month after it was stolen off her front porch - and she has a Good Samaritan to thank for getting it back to her.
Whoever stole the bike ditched it on the side of Art Hillsbery's home. He suspected it was a stolen bike and called police.
Now of course, at that point Hillsbery could have wiped his hands of the whole thing and let the police take it from there.
But he looked over stolen bike listings on BikePortland.org and found one that mentioned a Columbus, Ohio registration sticker. And then he tracked down the owner, Cara Althoff, to tell her the good news.
"It kind of restores your faith in humanity," said Althoff. "I mean, the fact that this person found the bike and didn't just leave it at that - they went through all of the steps and tracked me down. It's like every person who's lost a bike and had it stolen - it's their dream that someone would do that."
Had Hillsbery not taken the extra step, Althoff may have never seen her bike again. Even though police had the information about the sticker, they say the sheer volume of stolen bike cases leaves them very little time to cross check information like that. Instead, police rely on serial numbers.
Althoff did not know the serial number of her bike, which police say you should have written down somewhere in case yours is stolen. The most common place you will find the serial number is under the bike where the pedals come together.
I'm very glad that this person went the extra mile to get the bike back to her!
This is why I have my bike registered with the company and the police department. And the lock that secures the bike to SOLID structures is also registered with its company.
 @Mike_J I think you have to treat your bike like you would your dog. Get a # on it and have it recorded both on the dog and bike and it's a way to track your valuables, since these are both 'personal property'.
That was very nice of Art, nice job  [thumbs up] :)
Happy this woman got her bike back. Reminds me of an unrelated story. (sori, hope it's not too graphic) We found the skeleton of a dog on a Newport beach a few weeks after the '96 storm but still had it's collar on. We took it off and, this was prior to the good Google days, started a slow search on the internet to locate the License # on the dog which was still visible. Finally tracked the owner down who lived in Cowlitz, WA. Apparently, his dog got swept into the Cowlitz River during the storm and the owner was amazed he traveled for 2 weeks down the river, out to the ocean and south to wash up in Newport, maybe wanting to be found. It was a happy ending for us all and he appreciated the closure.Â
 @shewiz WOW! That's an amazing story! Kudos to your kind action and bringing closure to the pups owner.