CARL JUNCTION, MO.--- A shiny red bike, among many, looks like it belongs on a store sales rack. Instead, it's collecting dust in a police storage shed.
"Well it's a curse of every police department, we get abandoned property. Probably the most prevalent abandoned property we pick up is bicycles," states Delmar Haase, Carl Junction Police Chief.
Just last week Carl Junction Police picked up a bike, it will soon be added to the more than 2 dozen that are housed in the evidence shed.
"They're all over town. Usually off to the side of the road, in somebody's yard, or in a ditch. It's everything from old decrepit bikes to some that look brand new," says Chief Haase.
Chief Haase says people rarely call about missing bikes, so their collection continues to grow. Space is at a premium.
"We don't usually have enough to do an auction, but we have to find something to do with them. A lot of them end up going in the scrap pile and we do have some community people that revamp them and give them away through church groups, but it's a problem everywhere," say Chief Haase.
The department tries to cut down on the number of abandoned bikes by offering a free service to the public.
"They'll come into the police station, we will fill out some paperwork. We will put a decal on the bike and that way if we find it we can trace the decal back to the owner," says Chief Haase.
Registering your bike involves basic information like your name, contact information, and a description of the bike. It's a simple step police say could go a long way.
"A kid is always grateful to get his bike back, and that's what we want to make sure we do, get the property back to the people who it belongs to," says Chief Haase.
If you have lost a bike near the Carl Junction area, the police department urges you to call with a description of the bike to see if yours may be at the station. You can reach them at 649-7070.
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