It’s a common crime in Greater Victoria, but a bike stolen from a nurse has generated waves of support for where it happened — and what she was doing while the thief struck.
Sara Wiwcharuk, a registered nurse, locked her Trek road bike with distinctive yellow stripes outside the Victoria Conference Centre on Douglas Street Tuesday.
Inside the conference centre, the nurse worked a four-hour shift administering COVID-19 vaccines.
When she came back outside, she discovered her bike was stolen — lock and all. Wiwcharuk filed a police report and told a few friends, and that’s when the story took off.
“That was posted and reposted, friends and then people from the community, old colleagues commenting,” she said. “So it’s been quite a lovely response, heartwarming.”
She said she felt mournful and a little angry that her bike was stolen during nurse’s week as she administered COVID-19 vaccines, but with the community rallying behind her, good news soon came.
Trek bikes, the manufacturer of her original stolen bike, stepped forward to pledge a new set of wheels so that Wiwcharuk can continue to go on a three-day bike trip at the end of the month.
“I’m so touched by the generosity. Kind of misty, right?” she said. “My bucket is more full now than before the bike was stolen.”
The original bike is still missing and Wiwcharuk would like to see it again.
Police described it as a grey Trek road bike with yellow stripes, new bar tape, an adjustable MEC stem, a padded seat and flip-flop pedals with a clip-in one side and flat on the other side.
CHEK News
