The Stolen Bike

    It was a pretty cold night and the wind blew hard.  I was walking down the street looking for something to do because I was bored.  It had been snowing for a while and it still continued, coming down, and down. It was around 11 degrees Fahrenheit.  I had been sledding at the park with friends and I knew it was pretty late, but I didn't want to go home. I was wanting something else to happen, something more memorable than sledding with friends.  After a little bit more of walking I decided to go home because I didn’t think anything was going to happen. Then randomly I saw a bike just sitting on the side of the road half buried in snow.

“Hmmm,” I thought.  “I should go check that out.”  I start to walk over to where it was.  It is sitting right next to a house and I know it’s probably owned by the person who lives there, but I thought it would be nice to at least give it to them so that they could put it inside.  So I started to dig it up. I had barely even started, when I get a call from my mother. I answer it.

“Hello?” I ask.

“Honey, where are you?” my mother asks.  “You were supposed to be home at 7:30.” I look at my phone.  The time says 8:02.

“I’m so sorry, I’ll be home in 10 minutes. Bye mom,” I say hanging up the phone.  “She’s going to be so mad at me,” I mumble to myself. I start walking home and I thought to myself, “I will come back to it tomorrow.”

Once I get home and my mom tells me to go right to bed.  Can’t say I didn’t see that coming. I wake up in the morning and see my mom sitting on the couch reading the paper to a cup of tea.

“Good morning,” she says.

“Good morning,” I reply.  “What are you reading mom?”  

“An article on how 15 bikes have been stolen this past 2 weeks.”  “Geez. That’s an insane amount of bikes to be stolen in that amount of time.”

“I know right?”

“Would it be ok if I went out?” I ask.

“Sure.  Just make sure you eat breakfast first.”

“Ok.” I say. I pour a bowl of cereal and start eating it at the dining table.  I start to wonder if that bike could have been stolen. I wanted to get out as quickly as possible so I scarf down my cereal and head out. I head out towards Kahler Ave, which is where I last saw the bike.  I walk down the street looking at the houses with snow covered all over the top. Around eight minutes later I get back to the spot of the bike, but it’s gone! I start to panic thinking maybe it was stolen, but out of the corner of my eye, I see a man holding the bike. He was cleaning the snow and dirt off of it with a cloth.  He’s a tall man with a full beard and dirty clothes.

I walk up to him and see, behind him, a whole garage full of bikes.  Nice ones, too. I ask him, “Where did you get those?” “None of your business kid,” he replies to me in a mean tone.  Now I knew this was the guy. He had a ton of bikes in his garage and he was super mean and sketchy. I knew if I called the cops on him he would hurt me, so I moved a little bit down the road, so that he couldn’t see me and dialed 911.

“911 what’s your emergency?” The officer asked.

“So the bike theft going on, from the article in the    paper. I think I found the theft,” I said.  

“What’s the address?”  I move a little closer so that I could see the number on the side of the door.

“267 Kahler Avenue,” I say.  

“OK, we are on our way.”  I start to walk down back to the house and the man sees me.  

“What the heck are you doing here, kid?” he asked.  “Now get out of here before something bad happens to you.”  I get scared so I pretend to leave, but then I hear the siren.  The man immediately ran inside. The police pull up and ask me where he was.  “He ran inside,” I say.

Without even replying they bust inside.  After about five minutes of me waiting in the cold, they walk out of the house with the man’s hands cuffed behind his back.  They put him in the back of the police car and walk up to me.

“Kid, we got a prize for you. Head on over to the town hall to redeem it.”

“Really? Ok,” I said.  The officers get in the car and drive away. I start to walk home and get to the scene of a nice warm area.

“Hey mom.  Can you drive me to the town hall?  The officers have a reward for me.”

“What reward?” 

 “Well I caught a thief.”  

“Ok I’ll drive you right away.”  We arrive to the town hall at a scene of police officers.  We get out and walk right up to the police officer who arrested the man. “Son,” he says. “What you have done today is an act of bravery.  We reward you with a 500 dollar prize due to all of the stolen bikes you found,” the officer said, followed by a ton of applause. “Are you serious?” I ask.  “Well does this prove it,” he says handing me a check for 500. “Thank you so much sir,” I say. “I really mean it.”