Her prized bike was stolen, but Davis, CA got her rolling again

Cathy Speck’s former bike, in all its decorated glory.​

Her prized bike was stolen, but Davis got her rolling again Davis Enterprise

Davis, CA - Those who know local artist/activist Cathy Speck likely are quite familiar with her bike — a recumbent Tricycle colorfully festooned with lights, flower leis, whirlygigs and other festive trinkets.

“I’m always talking about, nobody’s ever going to steal my trike — it’s a blaring spectacle,” said Speck, who received the specialized ReBike from a friend eight years ago and has been decorating it ever since.

But that’s just what happened sometime early Wednesday morning, when Speck looked outside her D Street apartment and discovered the bike missing. All the thief or thieves left behind were a cut combination lock and some decorations dumped a couple of blocks away.

“I was absolutely stunned,” Speck, 58, said of her stolen bike, which has provided both physical and emotional respite from her longtime battle with the neurodegenerative disease ALS as well as Stage 4 neuroendocrine cancer.

Whenever possible, Speck took to the streets of Davis with Mazie, her poodle/terrier mix, running by her side.

“When I’m out on my trike, I feel like there’s nothing wrong with me. I’m out in the fresh air, I’m independent. It invigorates me,” Speck said.

She decorated the bike “to bring other people joy when I’m riding around town. People stop and stare at first, and then they just smile,” she said.

Speck immediately announced the theft on her Facebook page and received an overwhelming response from the Davis community, generating many dozens of comments and more than 350 shares.

“I was just blown away by the support. It was just incredible,” Speck said. “This is what I know Davis to be.”

She also filed a police report, word of which reached Cpl. Scott Allen in his first day as president of the Davis Police Officers Association.

Allen reached out to Foy’s Bike Shop in Woodland, which offered to knock $100 off the $1,100 cost of a replacement bike. DPOA put up $500, and Davis Community Church matched it.

“She does so much great work for the community,” Allen said, noting Speck’s longtime ALS activism as well as her outreach with local schools. “She’s just an important member of the community, and it’s the right thing to do.”

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DPOA members picked up Speck at her home Thursday afternoon and took her to Foy’s to choose her new bike, a sleeker, more ...

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'Good neighbors' help recover Davis woman's stolen trike Davis Enterprise

Cathy Speck is throwing a party.

Initially, Speck planned the Sunday gathering outside Davis Community Church to trick out her new tricycle, one that locals pitched in and bought for her earlier this month after someone stole her previous, whimsically decorated wheels.

Now, the party has a dual purpose: celebrating the recovery and return of Speck’s stolen trike from its hiding place in Woodland.

“This is an opportunity for all of us to celebrate together,” Speck said. “It’s an overwhelming example of how good life can be. I hope that everyone can feel that, the way I feel it.”

Her new trike, she added, “is going to be outrageous once again!”

A longtime Davis artist and activist, Speck is battling both ALS and inoperable cancer. Her former recumbent tricycle, passed on to her by a friend, offered her both physical and emotional respite from her physical struggles.

Sometime on the morning of Jan. 3, an unknown thief cut the lock and stole the trike from outside Speck’s D Street apartment, dumping some of its festive decorations around the neighborhood.

Its theft garnered so much community outcry that the Davis Police Officers Association and Davis Community Church matched funds to purchase a new trike from Foy’s Bikes in Woodland, which sold it at a discount.

Meanwhile, Speck had little hope that she’d ever see her old trike again.

That changed on Tuesday, however, when Woodland resident Donald Young spotted it at his Pioneer Street apartment complex. Suspicious of the unusual trike’s origins, he posted photos of it on the Good Neighbors of Woodland Facebook page.

“I think there is a stolen bike at my apartments,” Young, who reportedly had heard of the Davis theft, wrote above several photos of the red trike he found.

By then, it had been spray-painted white, as longtime Speck friend Mary Gillis, who lives just down the street from Young, noticed when she and her daughter Hannah went to inspect the recent discovery.

Gillis said her family was alerted to Young’s post by Hannah’s friend Alisa Hort, who also saw the Good Neighbors post.

“You could tell that it was newly spray-painted,” the paint can still perched on the bike, Gillis said. Scratches to the white paint revealed a red frame underneath, as well as stickers that Speck had affixed long ago.

The white trike, like Speck’s stolen one, also had a heavily duct-taped seat.

Word soon reached Speck, who said she received numerous social media tips in the hours that followed.

“I was getting all these notifications — it was crazy,” she said. “It was so awesome, all these people trying to help.”

Woodland police were called out and allowed Gillis to take possession of the trike, which she plans to return to Speck at Sunday’s decorating party.

Gillis, who has known Speck since their Davis High School days, said she feels blessed that her family was able to play a role in the trike’s recovery.

“When you’re a really super-duper wonderful person like Cathy is, good things happen and you get your stuff back,” said Gillis, a paraeducator at Holmes Junior High School. “Good things come to that woman because she does such amazing things for everybody else.”

Police have not made an arrest in the case, but it remains under investigation, Woodland police Sgt. Dallas Hyde said.

Speck, meanwhile, says she feels no animosity toward the person who took her bike, which she plans to fix up and contribute to someone in need.

A friend from Davis Community Church asked to purchase the recovered trike for a local homeless man who has trouble walking, according to Speck.

“I said, no, I’ll Donate it,” said Speck, who plans to treat her fellow decorators to lunch at Steve’s Pizza following the party.

“I’m really excited for people to meet each other,” she said. “They’re coming together truly as a community, an example of compassion and caring. That’s what it’s all about.”

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Community spirit on wheels Davis Enterprise

Cathy Speck shows off her newly decorated trike, thanks to the creativity of friends and fellow worshipers at Davis Community Church who gathered Sunday morning at the church playground. Her new tricycle — named OCS for Our Community Spirit, and pronounced “ox” — was purchased for her earlier this month after someone stole her previous, whimsically decorated wheels.

Its theft garnered so much community outcry that the Davis Police Officers Association and Davis Community Church matched funds to purchase a new trike from Foy’s Bikes in Woodland, which sold it at a discount.

Speck, a longtime Davis artist and activist, is battling ALS and inoperable cancer. Her former recumbent tricycle, passed on to her by a friend, offered her physical and emotional respite from her physical struggles.

That trike was recovered last week in Woodland and, after being repaired by Peter Wm. Wagner — creator of the popular Whmycycles often seen about town — will be donated to a homeless gentleman who recently was released from the hospital and has great difficulty walking, Speck said.

“This kind of circular compassion is...

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