Carl Hutzler’s Blog

It has been a week or so since my son’s bike was stolen so I decided to try and work the system a little. While the police have been very helpful, I was getting the idea that their priorities were getting in the way of my priorities…getting the bike back.

So I printed out a few 8×10 glossy photographs of the kids and brought them to the local middle school. The principal and security guard did not initially recognize the kids. On a whim, I went to the high school even though I thought the kids were not old enough to be in high school. Luckily, the “School Resource Officer” (SRO) was there. He is a Fairfax County Police Officer. I guess for a high school of 1800+ students, they need a full-time officer…sad but true.

Anyway, Officer Bacon was very interested in the photos and he thought he knew who it was. I left and he pulled a couple of kids from class and grilled them a little. But the kids flatly denied any knowledge and the officer believed them. He apologized to the kids and got them back to class.

He then went to the middle school where I had been earlier. This time, one of the staffers recognized the “other” kid as one of their students (the friend of the kid riding my son’s bike). They pulled him from class and talked to him. He quickly identified his friend who was riding my son’s bike as a student at my son’s school!! All the way back to Dogwood :-)

Officer Bacon, now hot on the trail, drove over to Dogwood and found the culprit who took him to the bike which was hidden in his friend’s back yard. The kid said he bought the bike from his friend for $5 (the friend who just ratted him out). The officer told him that he could write him up for possessing stolen property and gave him a pretty good talking to (I hope his parents were involved and I imagine they had to be).

The officer then showed the bike to my son who was in school and he was very happy to see it! And Officer Bacon drove the bike over to my house and dropped it off. A good guy and much appreciated.

Thus ends the tale of the stolen bike.

Oh, and I put a new lock on it!!