Bikes stolen from nonprofit in Kansas City

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Bikes and equipment worth thousands of dollars were stolen from a nonprofit in Kansas City, Missouri, on Monday evening.

BikeWalkKC said one of their trailers was stolen from the parking lot they use across the street from their warehouse.

The organization was able to obtain street camera video of the incident. In the video, you can see a white pickup truck with a black trailer driving off. You can also see a person on a motorcycle following the truck.

Laura Steele, the organization’s director of education, said on Tuesday morning that she was coming to work when she noticed the trailer was gone.

“It’s just kind of instant anger and sadness. That there’s all this equipment used to teach kids how to ride bikes... We don’t know where it is,” said Steele. “It just feels helpless.”

The trailer has a Missouri license plate “O2L OYL.”

Seventeen brand new bikes, helmets, cones, and other equipment were in the trailer. BikeWalkKC said they loaded the trailer up for a school visit in order to teach children about bike safety and how to ride a bike as part of its Safe Routes to School program.

“I don’t even know if I have words,” said Steele. “It’s not only affecting us. It’s obviously affecting the students and the community which we work with.”

The nonprofit said they are now down a quarter of their fleet and a third of their trailers. To replace everything, BikeWalkKC said it’s going to cost around $28,000.

“I think it just shows people don’t value community or others and, again, it just has a huge ripple effect that is just extremely unfortunate,” said Steele.

BikeWalkKC is raising money to replace the bikes and equipment. If you would like to donate, click here.

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