Thieves stole hundreds of bicycles and helmets promised to needy kids around Clark County Tuesday morning, according to charity organizer Waste Connections, which builds then distributes the items through its annual Scott Campbell Christmas Promise event.
The stolen disassembled bikes and accompanying helmets were stored in a semitrailer parked behind the Walmart at 192nd Avenue and Mill Plain Boulevard, said Cyndi Holloway of Waste Connections.
Around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, thieves broke into the trailer and took about 200 of the 700 donated bikes and about half of the helmets, she said.
Waste Connections’ charity arm bought the disassembled bikes and helmets through Walmart. Fortunately, Holloway said, Walmart told Waste Connections it will replace the stolen items.
The retailer is scrounging for more bicycles and helmets, she said, but finding that number of bicycles, many of which are meant for small children, is difficult during the Christmas shopping season. The Vancouver Police Department is investigating the thefts, she added.
Then there’s the matter of getting the bikes ready. Volunteers are already assembling for the event’s bike-building event, set for Saturday in east Vancouver.
“The hard part is that it’s a timeline thing,” she said. “We’re not sure if we’re going to have the bikes before Christmas.”
Waste Connections partners with other nonprofits and service organizations around the county — including Vancouver Public Schools, the YWCA, state Department of Social and Health Services, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office’s Santa’s Posse program and local churches — for whom many of the bikes are already “spoken for,” she said.
They planned on having the bikes delivered by Dec. 12.
“Right now, I’ve gotta make the phone calls to these nonprofits that are expecting these bikes,” she said.
Vancouver Police Department spokeswoman Kim Kapp said a street sweeper in the area apparently interrupted the thieves in the act, and investigators were working to retrieve store surveillance video.
A Walmart employee told investigators they saw two people in a dark-colored vehicle park near the trailer, break in, then load up bikes before the street sweeper passed by.
It’s unclear whether the sweeper driver had any interaction with the suspects, she said, adding Walmart staff were still working to take inventory of the remaining bikes to confirm how many were taken.
Waste Connections and community donors raised over $55,000 to buy the bikes and helmets, she said, making this year the most successful in the program’s history for cash raised and bikes provided.
“I’m just dumbfounded,” she said. “I think they think they’re stealing from Walmart. They don’t know they’re stealing from a nonprofit charity.”
Holloway asked people to keep an eye out for lots of brand-new, disassembled bikes for sale and contact law enforcement if they encounter a suspicious deal. She said she heard one of the Walmarts in the Kelso-Longview area fielded what looked like a fake return of a bike without a receipt.
This is the eighth year for the charity event, which was renamed last year as the Scott Campbell Christmas Promise, in memory of the late civic leader and Waste Connections employee. Campbell died last year.
Jim Mains, who also helps with the bike charity, said organizers will have a truck parked outside of Wednesday night’s “Hello Vancouver!” show at Kiggins Theatre, 1011 Main St., Vancouver, for those who’d like to donate bikes, if they can find any.
The truck will be there between 6 and 8 p.m., he said.
Donors can also bring bikes, or come help with assembling them, during the bike-build event 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday at SEH Inc., 18110 S.E. 34th St.
The Scott Campbell Christmas Promise is also still accepting donations. A $50 donation buys a bike and helmet. People can make donations to the J. Scott Campbell Foundation at the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington either online at www.cfsww.org/donate or by check.
