Around $500 of bike equipment was stolen this week after thieves broke into English teacher James Nelson’s storage shed by the Oak Grove bike racks.
Nelson runs M-A on the Move, a program that aims to reduce traffic congestion by repairing and distributing bikes to students for free.
The thieves seemed to have used a crowbar to break down the door of one of the storage sheds and clear out what was inside, rendering the entire shed unusable.
Most of what was taken were bike tubes, which Nelson uses to repair flat tires and are difficult to replace. The tools were brand new and purchased using grant money from Safe Routes to School, an organization that helps fund Nelson’s bike program. Although Nelson plans to file a police report, he isn’t optimistic that anything will be recovered.
“If they were to steal all of my tools, we’d no longer have a bike program.”
— James Nelson
Nelson is now also worried about the security of equipment stored in his other sheds. “My guess is that they stole as much stuff as they could carry in one shot, and they’re probably coming back later to get the rest,” he said. “If they were to steal all of my tools, we’d no longer have a bike program.”
Nelson now has to spend time filing tedious police reports and insurance claims as well as redesigning his storage space—all of which takes time away from the program’s main purpose of providing students with bikes and Nelson’s other roles as a teacher and water polo coach.
Nelson said he wished people would bring in their bikes for him to fix instead of stealing. “I could have given you the materials for free. I would have installed them for free for you as well,” he said. “They’ve just made the program more problematic for everybody else.”
