Woke up to bike gone, helmet in alley. I had ridden home from work last night around 10:30pm. I took another bike to cruise around in hopes it was abandoned nearby but no luck. ADMIN NOTE: On 4/28/26 the victim wrote to inform us that the bike had been recovered by police: "It was found in a backyard nearby. I live very close to Swedish Hospital and it sounds like the cops noticed that the building it was in the yard of had cameras and then said they saw the bike. I mean, maybe I'm wrong, but I think if the shooting hadn't happened this weekend, they would not have found the bike. I suspected it wasn't very far, but hadn't had time to look in many places due to work. I combed some alleys and looked over by the river. It's not worth that much money and was locked to itself and it looked like whoever took it was rushing. If they'd had a truck they would've been able to throw it in to cut the lock, but it's not a super easy to carry bike, so I figured if it was someone on foot that they'd figure that out and ditch it. I had gotten a new lock and will be bringing it inside or locking it to something from now on."

Bike was stored in my closed garage, attached to my yard with both a locked front and back gate. It was sandwiched between the wall and my partner's bike which was not taken. I found camera footage from the front of our home with the thief leaving, but did not catch footage of anyone entering the property. [Admin note 1/5/26- victim reported bike found. "A neighbor found it by her house, maybe a mile from my house and we stole it back! It was chained to a construction project's fence with a crappy lock."]

Intruder broke into back door of sister high-rise building. Door man chased him through underground parking garage. Intruder ran up stairs from garage into the building, entered the bike storage room, grabbed the bike, and fled through doors that lead from room to outside. Those doors are locked on the outside. [On July 4, 2026 victim reported that the bike had been recovered: "I am happy to report that, almost a year to the day of the theft, I have recovered this bicycle. I would not have recovered it had I not reported the theft on your website.  Late on June 29, I received a text from someone who told me that my bike was listed for sale on Facebook Marketplace.  Two other people texted me the next day informing me of the same. All three people saw the listing on Facebook. The seller included a photo of the serial number of the bike in the listing and the people who contacted me apparently googled the serial number and found the listing on Stolenbike.org.  She included the serial number because she didn’t know much about the bicycle and suggested potential buyers check the serial number on Trek’s website to learn more about the bike.  The seller did not steal my bike. (I really doubt any person who stole a bike would include the serial number on a sales listing.) Whoever stole it abandoned it not far from my residence.  A relative of the seller apparently came upon the abandoned bike and took it.  At some point he moved to Janesville, WI and moved in with the seller. He took the bike with him. The bike has been in this person’s garage for the better part of a year. He moved out and his relative decided to sell the bike. She returned the bicycle to me once I established to her that the bicycle was my stolen bike and she verified with her relative that he had found it abandoned in Chicago. Yesterday I drove to Janesville and picked up the bike.  The person who tried to sell the bike was very gracious. I am very appreciate to you for running this website, the three people who contacted me, and the lady in Janesville who had the bike and returned it to me upon realizing it was mine. As for the bike, it’s in good shape. There are a few light scratches on the top tube and the brakes are squeaky but otherwise the bike works great.  The tires were flat from disuse but I filled them last night and they hold air just fine."]

The bike was stored in my private, single-car garage behind my duplex. Nothing else was stolen except for my bike. RECOVERY NOTE: Owner found the bike via Facebook Marketplace in their neighborhood a month after it was stolen.