It is never good to have your bike stolen, but you are new to the country and rely on a donated bike to get back and forth from appointments, it can be a real problem.
Refugees living at Matthew House on Forest Glade Drive in Windsor are toughing it out after thieves went into the backyard of the shelter early Saturday morning and loaded up 12 adult and children's bikes.
The bikes were donated over the past year. For the past month, a student from the University of Windsor had fixed them up.
"They were all top-notch with brake cables replaced, and tubes, so that they were all safe for our refugees to ride," said Executive Director Rev. Mike Morency.
Morency said they have video surveillance of four men making two trips into their yard around 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Unfortunately, you can not see their faces.
"We don't have the capacity to replace these bikes," he said. "The children don't have them to ride, and the adults don't have them to get back and forth to their appointments."
Morency said they had filed a police report, but the bikes were donated, so they did not have a serial number to give the officers. Although he gave them a vague description, he is not optimistic the bikes will turn up.
Earlier this week, he went to the community in a Facebook post detailing the theft.
"We do have a great community," he said. "I've already had one woman contact me with two bikes that her and her husband have, that we'll be able to pick up tonight."
As for the thieves that targeted the organization, Morency said if they want to bring the bikes back, they have no interest in pursuing charges.
- With files from Mark Brown.