Calgary police have recovered and returned a specialized para-cycle that was stolen from an Abbeydale garage earlier this week.
Kas Duong is training for the Canadian Para-cycling Championships in August and hopes to go on to world cup events and the Paralympics.
Her bike is a three-wheel racer and it has a custom-built rear axle and its controls are made to be operated using only her left hand.
The bike was stolen sometime between Sunday evening and Monday afternoon from Duong’s northeast home and she thought her dream of competing in Quebec later this summer was also gone.
On Wednesday, police recovered the bike at about 7:00 a.m. and returned it to her.
“I was just floored what I saw, it was my bike,” she said. “It’s beyond words. I can start riding again. My chances at nationals are back on track, I can start training and yeah, be more focused.”
“When she showed me a photo of how unique the bike was, I knew that, especially with media coverage getting it out there, that we would be able to locate the bike quickly due to it’s unique nature of the bike,” said CPS Cst. Michael Kornelson.
Duong says police told her an anonymous tipster called to report that the bike was inside a home near 44th Street and Memorial Drive.
“It was a pretty good feeling because it doesn’t usually happen that quickly, usually it’s long, drawn out,” said Kornelson. “We conducted a door knock on the basement and a female answered the door and we asked if there was a stolen bike there and she said there wasn’t a bike but there was a tricycle in the house and she showed us where the tricycle was and the second I saw it I instantly knew, due to her pictures, that it was the bike we were looking for.”
The bike was taken for a bit of a joyride and it will need a tune-up before she can start riding it again.
Duong says she is relieved and grateful for everyone’s help to recover the para-cycle.
“I will have to run it to the bike shop just to make sure everything is in tip-top shape and running,” she said. “To me, it’s my independence. It gets me around, gets me moving every day, gets me going and it’s my passion, it’s what I love to do.”
Police say they are hoping to obtain CCTV footage from nearby homes to determine who took the bike.
No charges have been laid in the theft and the investigation is ongoing.
