Hood River Police have identified two persons of interest in connection with the theft of seven bicycles from a local nonprofit organization that provides bicycles to children who need them. Contact Officer Ben Oka at 541-387-5256 or email b.oka@cityofhoodriver.gov if you have any information on who these individuals are.
Hood River Police have identified two persons of interest in connection with the theft of seven bicycles from a local nonprofit organization that provides bicycles to children who need them. Contact Officer Ben Oka at 541-387-5256 or email b.oka@cityofhoodriver.gov if you have any information on who these individuals are.
Hood River Police have identified two persons of interest in connection with the theft of seven bicycles from a local nonprofit organization that provides bicycles to children who need them. Contact Officer Ben Oka at 541-387-5256 or email b.oka@cityofhoodriver.gov if you have any information on who these individuals are.
Image courtesy Hood River Police
Hood River Police have identified two persons of interest in connection with the theft of seven bicycles from a local nonprofit organization that provides bicycles to children who need them. Contact Officer Ben Oka at 541-387-5256 or email b.oka@cityofhoodriver.gov if you have any information on who these individuals are.
Image courtesy Hood River Police
HOOD RIVER — Approximately $2,200 worth of bicycles were stolen from the Anson’s Bike Buddies storage facility on the evening of June 5.
Surveillance video shows two person’s of interest walking off with bikes taken from the Anson’s storage facility located behind Cascade Eye Center. The Hood River Police Department has released two images from that footage; those with information should contact Officer Ben Oka at 541-387-5256 or email b.oka@cityofhoodriver.gov.
Anson’s Bike Buddies, known in Hood River for collecting used bikes, fixing them up and donating them to children in need of a bicycle, was started about eight years ago by Anson Pulk, then in elementary school.
Pulk, now in high school, said a member of the local biking community was able to identify one of the stolen bikes, and the police have located three others.
“It was very disappointing that people would steal from us,” Pulk said. “Luckily, we are overwhelmed by the community support we’ve received (last week).”
He said Dirty Fingers bike shop donated a new bike, which will go to one of the children on the program’s waiting list.
Kyle and Megan Ramey took over the managing operations at Anson’s three years ago, donating about 150 bikes per year. The two also sell approximately 15 bikes a year — generally ones with a higher resale value — so they can buy more parts to fix up other bikes.
And that’s what was taken that Monday night.
“They took the most expensive seven bikes,” said Kyle Ramey. “They chose them very carefully. Because they resell for $200-$400, I put more time and money into them, because that funds the parts for the other bikes. They passed over 20 others to get those seven.”
Ramey said that he and his wife had been to the storage facility Sunday evening and had inadvertently left the door unlocked.
“Megan and I had just spent a full day at the Streets Alive festival, me fixing more than 20 bikes, her leading a kids bike ride that more than 80 people joined, and I think we were just wiped out,” he said. “We feel horrible.”
Megan is the Safe Routes to School manager for Hood River School District, and most of the bikes donated to children are in coordination with district PE teachers.
“The awesome PE teachers will tell her when they have a kid who needs a free bike, and we put them on the list,” he said. “When we have one ready for them, we give the bike to that PE teacher, and they get it to the kids.”
They are also partnered with area rehabilitation services and have provided several bikes to people who have recently left the prison system and are in need of transportation to their new jobs, he said.
“We could not do what we do without the kind people at Cascade Eye Center, who give us a free place to do all of this in their storage facility, and without Domino’s Pizza, who gives us free food every Wednesday night,” he said. He also thanked the person who called the police that evening when they saw something suspicious, and to all of those who have donated bikes to the program.
Pulk also thanked Cascade Eye Center for donating storage facility space, and added, “because of the community’s generosity and volunteers, Anson’s Bike Buddies has donated more than 1,000 bikes and we are more motivated than ever to continue to do so.”
“Anson’s Bike Buddies started as an idea formed in conjunction with Anson’s realization that there are children in his community who cannot afford a bicycle and the monthly service projects adopted by his school,” according to the nonprofit’s website (www.ansonsbikebuddies.org). “Anson’s parents, Jeff Pulk and Kristen Campbell, and his mentor, Jeff Craven, a Mountain View Cycles bike mechanic, supported Anson’s idea to create a service project aimed at collecting used bicycles, repairing them and partnering with other local non-profit organizations, such as The Next Door, to donate the bicycles to Mid-Columbia children who may not otherwise have access to a bicycle. This idea became Anson’s Bike Buddies, a non-profit organization with this mission: ‘Donate a Bike — Change a Life.’”
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