Bike safely returned to owner

When a bike was stolen from a garage on the mountainside in June, its owner thought he would never see it again but he was wrong.

Instead, the bike made its way to Malawi and back again to Fish Hoek where its owner could positively identify it at the Fish Hoek police station two months later.

Highway Mountainside Neighbourhood Watch chairperson Stella Elliott said the bike was stolen in the early hours of Saturday June 29 from a mountainside garage.

The owners were alerted by armed response that the garage had been broken into and a suspect found inside. He was arrested but his accomplice had managed to get away with a bike, a Specialized 19.

Fish Hoek detective, Warrant Officer Joe Scheepers said through investigations, the bike was traced to a man in Fish Hoek.

Upon further investigation, he said, it was found that the man had bought the bike, not knowing it was stolen, and arranged to have it sent to his family in Malawi.

At the time of locating the man, the bike was on a truck en route to Malawi.

Detective Scheepers said the man was very cooperative and had immediately called the truck driver who had been unable to turn around at that stage.

However, after making his other deliveries, he returned to Fish Hoek with the bike.

Warrant Officer Scheepers urges residents to mark their bikes or have them microdotted and photographed to make them easy to identify.