Toronto police pulled four large transport trucks into a community center parking lot on Monday and began unloading 1,000 bicycles that will be fixed up and distributed to youth in the area.
But that's not even half of the stolen-bike haul made by police who in 2008 began investigating Igor Kenk, dubbed the most prolific bicycle thief in Canada's history.
In all, police confiscated 2,200 to 2,900 bicycles that Kenk had squirreled away around the city. About 1,000 of those bikes were returned to their owners.
CBC Canada says other bikes are going to such places as the Thunder Bay native center and a fly-in community in remote northwestern Ontario.
Offers help
Among those showing up at the center for the unloading — Igor Kenk. He asked how to buy the bikes before leaving his phone number with an offer to repair them.
When contacted later by the Toronto Star, Kenk said:
“Of course they’re my bikes. Think of them as my puppies … I would love to buy some of my property back.”
Served time
The 50-year-old bike shop owner agreed to allow the city to confiscate his hoarde of nearly 3,000 bicycles and frames as part of plea bargain of possessing 10 stolen bicycles. Sentenced to 30 months in jail, he received credit for time spent in jail awaiting trial and was released after serving about 4 months.
Now Kenk claims he was railroaded. Although community leaders say they'll need help in teaching the youth how to fix up the bicycles into riding condition, they aren't sure they want to take up Kenk's services.
Kenk, a former policeman from Slovenia, is the subject of an upcoming book described as a “304-page journalistic comic book” by its publishers, Pop Sandbox.
Kenk: A Graphic Portrait is collaboration between producer Alex Jansen, reporter Richard Poplack, photographer Jason Gilmore and illustrator Nick Marinkovich, some of them started gathering material on Kenk a year before his arrest (Poplack was brought in after Kenk's arrest).
Steal from neighbor
Reviewing the book, the Toronto Globe and Mail pulls a quote from a crime analyst who points out one of the more distasteful part of the Kenk case:
“Where is individual responsibility – community responsibility – when one is buying a bike for a price that’s too good to be true? . . . is that not a de facto case of stealing from your neighbour?”
That's a good question to consider when buying a used bike; is it stolen?
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