Donated or dumped?

That was the question faced by staff at the Cannington MCO (Masonic Charity Outlet) when they found a good quality bike at the back of their shop one morning.

A staff member’s son suggested checking the serial number on Bikelinc to see if it was listed as stolen.  But shops are busy places and various distractions meant this search didn’t happen and the bike ended up being displayed on the shop floor for a few days.  This bargain was soon spotted, but the interested buyer had to pop out and get some money before finalising the purchase.

While he was gone, the staff volunteer realised that a search on Bikelinc hadn’t happened so they quickly did one and discovered the bike was stolen.  This isn’t the sort of news you want to break to a customer who thought they were about to cycle home on their new set of wheels, but fortunately he was very understanding and obviously wasn’t interested in buying stolen property.

Using the Contact Owner function on Bikelinc, one of the MCO team got in touch with the owner, Sam, who arrived at the op shop an hour later to retrieve his hybrid bike.  Thieves had cut the bike lock at his home about 9 months before, so he was pleasantly surprised to see the bike was still in good condition, just needing some air in the tyres and oil on the chain.

Well done Cannington MCO for turning this opportunity into a day to remember for Sam.