TORONTO - In a move that gives new meaning to the phrase "wheels of justice," at-risk Toronto youth will repair the haul from the biggest batch of stolen bikes in police memory and then pass them on to kids in need.
Giving thousands of bikes that were stolen in the Toronto area to children is a fitting end to the case, Attorney General Chris Bentley said Monday.
The bikes were taken from a shop once owned by Igor Kenk, who was sentenced to 30 months in jail last December after pleading guilty to possessing 10 stolen bicycles and six drug possession charges.
About 70 bikes and more than 1,000 bike parts and locks were being distributed Monday to a pair of Toronto centres for at-risk youth.
"Some of the bicycles and parts will be used to teach bicycle repair skills to at-risk youth. Others will be delivered to a remote community where bikes are rare and most children would not experience the joy of having one," Bentley said.
"It's a win-win-win situation."
Kenk was arrested in the summer of 2008 and police subsequently raided numerous rental garages filled with bicycles in a huge investigation throughout the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto police Insp. Gerry Cashman said Monday it was the biggest stolen bike haul he can remember.
More than 2,200 bicycles were seized under Ontario's civil forfeiture law. It allows the attorney general to seize property that is determined to be a proceed or an instrument of unlawful activity.
Almost 1,000 of the bikes were returned to their owners but the rest were never claimed.
Experts will now help the kids put the remaining bikes together and they'll be donated to the community.
About 300 bikes and parts are also being sent to First Nations youth in northwestern Ontario, such as Thunder Bay and North Spirit Lake, north of Dryden.
A number of youth from Bendale Business and Technology Institute in east Toronto were on hand Monday to begin unloading the bikes and bike parts from trucks.
"It's a good idea to give them to kids who never had a bike in their entire life," said Dushane Harrison, 16.
He said he's happy to help his community and vowed to make some of the rusty bicycles look brand new.
The event also attracted local youth to the Cabbagetown Youth Centre, looking to find a bike to repair and keep.
Hakim Derdak, 11, said his bike was stolen last summer and he came to find one that he, his father and sister would repair.
Without a bike, he said, it's hard to go swimming because it is too far. But with one, "we can go places with our friends, so we can keep up with them."
"A bike in childhood represents freedom and independence," said Spiros Papathanasakis, the centre's executive director.
"It's not just a great thing to give a kid a bike, but we are creating citizens who will use the bikes for transportation in our city, which I think is wonderful."
Sajeeth Vickneswararajah, 14, was also there to find a bike after his broke in two and parts of it were stolen. But the Jarvis Collegiate student also planned to help repair them for others.
"This is actually going to good use, because the kids in the community will actually have something to do like go to the park ... not just get stuck in (front of) the TV."
The youth that will repair the bikes are "learning to be part of a team where they learn skills," Papathanasakis noted.
Some 3,000 bicycles, on average, are stolen in Toronto each year, police said, but only a small percentage are ever returned to their owners.
Kenk was allowed to keep the proceeds from the sale of his shop on Toronto's Queen St. West, other than a $50,000 payment to the Crown, $65,000 to legal aid and other outstanding legal and tax bills.
Bentley says about $13 million from the fruits of crime has been awarded to the attorney general. Another $40 million awaits disposition by the courts.
