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California riders locate stolen Whistler bike

Custom Rocky Mountain Slayer tracked down in Surrey, recovered by RCMP
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Tyler Lelacheur has recovered his stolen $6,000 bike thanks to the efforts of two Good Samaritans from California.

The custom-built 2012 Rocky Mountain Slayer 70 has been missing since April — it was stolen just days after Lelacheur unpacked it from its winter storage area.

He said he was visiting a friend and left his bike unlocked in front of his friend's place for about an hour on April 2. When he returned the bike was gone.

He immediately reported the theft to police then went about posting pictures of it on every social media outlet he could, as well as putting up posters around town. He already had it listed on PinkBike.com for sale, so he updated that post as well.

"I had a ton of response on it and feedback just from the general public, people looking for it," Lelacheur said adding that he couldn't go without a mountain bike.

"(So) I bought another one on credit card," he said, on a break from his job at Summit Sport. "It is kind of what I do, ride bikes and it is what I do for work. With that I cut it off as a loss basically."

Then, early in August, two guys in California contacted Lelacheur and told him they had found his bike for sale on Craigslist — in Surrey.

"They recognized it because it was a very specific build," said Lelacheur.

"They pretended to be potential buyers (and) they got photos from the guy."

The Californian sleuths, Travis Emerson and Tyler Persons, convinced the man in Surrey that they were going to buy the bike and they got his name, address and phone number.

"They just did everything and handed it to me on a silver platter," Lelacheur said.

Armed with this information Lelacheur called the RCMP in Whistler and spoke with Cst. Scott Langtry, who immediately contacted the Surrey police department. According to Lelacheur, the RCMP in Surrey jumped right on it and within 20 minutes they were knocking on the door of the person who had the bike.

"Within two hours he (Langtry) contacted me back and said, 'Yeah, we got your bike back, we got it straight from the guy,' so I was stoked," said Lelacheur. "I was just talking to the Surrey (police)... and they have the bike there.

"He was really excited to get another bike thief," Lelacheur said of how Langtry reacted to the information on the whereabouts of the missing bike.

There was a reward of $500 offered for the bike's return but Persons and Emerson said they didn't want the money.

"All around good Karma points for them," said Lelacheur. "I have no relation to them, they don't owe me anything. They just wanted to help a buddy out."

When Persons and Emerson turned down the reward money Lelacheur offered to provide them with bike parts and they said they would get back to him on that. So far, they haven't taken him up on his offer.

Now, Lelacheur just needs to get down to the Surrey RCMP detachment to get his Slayer back.

The guy who had the bike, said Lelacheur, claimed he bought the bike through Craigslist back in May. Lelacheur didn't record the serial numbers from the frame, so that has complicated the ability of the RCMP to lay charges, but he's just happy that two guys in California recognized the bike and helped him get it back.