WHEAT RIDGE, Colo. — The evidence storage is getting a little full at the Wheat Ridge Police Department (WRPD).
Unclaimed bikes occasionally pile up, and this month WRPD is working to reunite owners with their property before donating the bikes somewhere else.
“This is our evidence shed, where we keep all the bikes that we keep over the course of the year or several months that we pick up in evidence,” explained WRPD Public Information Officer Alex Rose. “Could be anything from a hit-and-run, recovered stolen [bike], a suspect's bike — who knows. Anything that involves evidence.”
The storage shed currently holds 27 unclaimed bikes, with the longest-held bike sitting there since 2019. This month, WRPD published a notice online and in a local newspaper announcing their efforts to reunite the property with its owners.
“We give people a two weeks’ notice, give a running list with descriptions of bikes we have,” Rose said. “And say, 'Hey, if you think this bike is yours, call our evidence team. Come with a good description, serial number, would be ideal. Come to [the] police department and we’ll try to reunify bikes.'”
Bike owners can help themselves by keeping detailed information about their bike in advance: the serial number, the model and even a picture. This allows police to better locate lost or stolen property once a police report is completed.
Despite the department's efforts, Rose said reunification is rarely successful.
“We’ve been doing this for more than a dozen years and only one person has come forward to be reunified with their bike,” he said. “We would love to reunify people with their property, that’s the endgame. But under [city] ordinance, we are allowed to donate these bikes to charity, and that’s what we love to do.”
WRPD works with local nonprofits to service some of the bikes that are in bad shape and donate the unclaimed bikes to various organizations in the community. Some bikes have been donated as far away as Africa.
“We don’t want these to just collect dust,” Rose said. “If we can put these bikes to good use, we're going to do it.”
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