Hi howzit. Apologies for late reply, didnt know there was a whole forum section attached to the stolen bike post.
We didnt exactly get mugged, we go to ride and practice every day at our local mosque/masjid parking lot.
Its pretty safe, and we know a lot of the people there.
About 2.5 weeks prior to the incident, 3 teens (14ish) we asking me about my bike from over the fence and after a bit of conversation, asked if they could have a go on our bikes. I agreed, we all took turns - on that day it was me and one of my kids. So all was good, the boys thanked us, and left, we went home.
We did this on probably 8 occasions over a span of 2.5 weeks. Sometimes with both my kids and their bikes and sometimes one.
Then last Thursday, the same routine was happening, and they waited for all 3 of themselves to be riding all 3 of our bikes at the same time.
They then proceed to calmly ride out of the premises and away with the bikes.
It was basically a situation of them building our trust over time, then catching us unaware.
I alerted the security in our area etc, but Im not sure if that really did anything.
I proceeded to walk my kids home since they are still 4 & 6, and then got my car to look around the area they went into that eventually leads into Alexandra. No sign of them as it was about 10min after the incident.
After speaking to some people in the Alex area, some adults some kids, some street hobos, I went home to eat, after about 4 hours out. After that went to the police station, which didnt help much.
After the weekend i just convinced myself to stop and forget about pursuing the stolen bikes and the boys and move on with life peacefully.
Fast forward to tonight, and summarizing the story.
I got all 3 bikes back, somewhat filthy and slightly beat up. It was another group of kids from Alex who I talked to on the day the bikes were stolen that brought them back to the masjid. Another community member called and alerted me that they were there with my bike.
Never expected to ever see the bikes again.
🙏
