Bike Is Back After 21 Years on Trail

It was a special Christmas gift for a 9-year-old girl. But when the bicycle was stolen more than 21 years ago, little Wendy gave it up for lost.

Until this week.

Police in Huntington Beach determined that a bike seized from a woman arrested while drunk in public belonged to Wendy. And on Wednesday, Wendy Rincon--now 30--got to jump up onto the saddle of her long-lost 26-inch Schwinn cruiser for the first time in two decades.

“I was shocked when my dad called and told me,� Rincon said as her 3-year-old son, Grant, paddled in a wading pool. “It was obviously meant to be in the family.�

Police officers confiscated the bicycle on Monday when they arrested a homeless woman who was using it to carry shopping bags crammed with her belongings, Huntington Beach Police Lt. Chuck Thomas said. The woman told officers she paid $12 for the bike years ago, and there is no evidence she knew it was stolen, Thomas said.

At first detectives didn’t give the bike a second thought. The spokes were rusted. The blue paint was fading. The chain guard was missing. And the seat was in poor condition. Stickers covered the frame.

In fact, officers were planning to return the bike to the homeless woman they took it from when Det. Mike Williams decided first to give it a good check.

Underneath the handlebars, Williams managed to make out a California driver’s license engraved into the metal. And tracing the license number back to a Ken Wilkinson, the detective started to piece together where the bike had come from. The trail eventually led to Wilkinson’s daughter, Wendy Rincon.

On Wednesday, Rincon recalled the joy she felt the first time she saw the bicycle, back on that Christmas morning, standing at the bottom of the stairs alongside a similar bike for her brother. Months later, however, she ran out to the side yard only to discover the bike missing.

“I was absolutely devastated,� she recalled.

The bicycle--which was originally a shiny, metallic blue--was stolen from in front of a sporting goods store after Rincon’s brother secretly borrowed it. Fearing he’d get in trouble, the brother didn’t explain what really happened, Rincon said, and the family believed for years that the bike was stolen from their side yard.

The truth eventually came out during a Sunday family dinner years later, she added.

The beach cruiser was an expensive loss, costing Rincon’s father $200 back then.

“That was kind of a stretch in those days,� Wilkinson recalled. “They were all the rage back then.�

Now, Wilkinson said he will sandblast the rust from the wheels and restore the rest of the bike to its original condition. And when his grandson is old enough to reach the pedals, he too will get to ride it.