Sb Local Needs Help to Ride Again Go Fund Me

Hullo, my name is Jennifer Blevins and I own Mad Dogs & Englishmen, a family-endemic bike shop in California with four locations. On Friday, Feb 11th I received an online sales inquiry from our website from a guy wanting to test ride a Specialized Turbo Kenevo SL ebike, worth close to 15k. He pretended his proper noun was Brett Bietz, which was a stolen identity. Through several email exchanges, we fabricated an appt for him to come into our Carmel shop on Tuesday Feb 15th, with the agreement that he would buy the bike after examination riding it if he liked it. Our shop mechanic Robbie was instructed that morning time to ensure he verified his identity and also was asked to brand sure he went with him on the exam ride, as lots of bikes like this are getting stolen from bike shops across the land. Thieves come into bike shops with faux IDs and credit cards that are normally stolen and modified, they take a bicycle out for a test ride and don't return it. We had this happen to us final yr at our Santa Barbara location, and unfortunately the guy got abroad with a $7500 cycle and was never caught. So we thought we had learned our lesson. Unfortunately our mechanic did not follow instructions and allowed this individual to leave the shop alone with our bike, which turned out to be a regretful decision. An hour after our staff realized the bicycle had been stolen. The Carmel police were called. It was determined that the credit card and ID were also stolen, the photograph on the Drivers License was replaced with i matching the thief.

Our insurance company that nosotros pay 45k per year to has recently sent us a non-renewal observe stating they will not renew our insurance at the cease of March due to excessive claims, even though they take simply ever paid out on three bikes that take been stolen betwixt four stores. So I was distraught at the thought of losing this much coin on this bike theft, worried that I would not exist able to file a claim with my insurance as this would only get in harder for me to observe a new insurance company and competitive rates next calendar month.

Nosotros sent an email to our local Specialized Sales Rep Matt Jespersen telling him what happened. He immediately notified all other Specialized bike shops in the surface area, as but the twenty-four hour period earlier a similar bicycle had been stolen in a similar manner from a shop nearby in Gilroy.

I hour after the police came and took a statement, that same evening, I received a call on my jail cell from a man challenge that he had been scammed and had just paid $9000 cash for our stolen bike! His proper name is Heraclio Bernal Ramirez, he's a local guy who is a passionate biker that rides the local trails here in Monterey County several times a week. He had seen an ad over the weekend on Craigslist from a guy selling a brand new bike, the bike of his dreams, that he had always wanted. This item bike is very hard to find. He was excited to see he could buy it for 5k less than what it normally sells for. And then basically, the thief stole the bike from our shop and then collection across boondocks and met this private in a parking lot of a eating place and sold him our wheel. He pretended that he had forgotten the bike charger, but showed him a simulated receipt for the bike from a shop in Sacramento. He and so discounted the bike some other $thou to make up for non having the charger, hoping to sweeten the deal.

When Heraclio got home with his new cycle, he messaged friends and riding buddies in the area, sharing the expert news well-nigh his new bike and his expert fortune. One of his friends is a bike store owner of a Specialized wheel shop chosen BobCat Bicycles in Salinas. When he saw the post he recognized the cycle as the one that had been stolen from u.s. earlier that day, so he had to requite his friend the bad news.

Now, as many of us know, in that location are a LOT of dishonest people in this globe. He could have kept the bike or sold it to someone else, but instead he CHOSE to exercise the right thing and he called me right away to let me know what had happened, and even though he actually wants the bike and is heartbroken over existence swindled out of 9k, he offered to return the bike to me the next day. He also agreed to meet with the police and be a cooperative witness. I was then overwhelmed with a sense of joy to know that someone would be this kind and honest and good. It broke my middle to recall that this good samaritan was going to be out of 9k for doing a good human activity. It just didn't feel right. That is what made me think to do a become fund me.

So now the police are close to communicable this guy (we hope), we take our bike back, only Heraclio is out 9k. And from what I understand he lives in Gonzales, a farming customs, and he commutes daily to Salinas to his job where he packs produce, and then I suspect 9k IS A LOT OF Money TO HIM.

And then, I have made it my mission to try to enhance the money to cover his loss. If nosotros can heighten some or all of the funds to cover his loss we will provide him with the money he lost or let him go on the cycle, whatever he prefers. I just call back that someone like him that steps up and does the right thing in a situation like this deserves back up and recognition from the local community. Nosotros demand more people in the world similar Heraclio.

Photos below are of the faux ID (this is a existent person but not the thief'southward DL). The photograph at the very bottom of the guy in the glasses is one taken in our shop of the actual thief. He is also shown on a video camera rolling the bike out the forepart door of our store. Other photos testify the craigslist ad he posted, letters between me and the thief and Heraclio and the thief. All of the information in this story tin can be verified by the Carmel Law Dept.

I hope that if yous are reading this you will consider making a donation. Any amount is appreciated. And if you lot always see Heraclio on the trails here in Monterey Canton, I hope yous will terminate and thank him for doing the right thing.