$30K worth of adaptive bicycles for disabled stolen in Phoenix, AZ

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$30,000 worth of adaptive bicycles for disabled stolen from nonprofit storage container AZFamily

Phoenix, AZ - A Phoenix nonprofit that gives kids and adults living with disabilities the opportunity to enjoy the outdoors is now asking for the community’s help to help find some stolen adaptive cycles. The adaptive bikes are a mix of tandems, hand cycles, and recumbent bikes, all of which are specially designed for people with physical limitations.

A total of 32 bikes were locked up in a storage container at Rose Mofford Park at 23rd and Peoria avenues. Crooks broke into the container not once, but twice recently -- first in November and then again over the weekend. The thieves took a total of 21 bikes.

Daring Adventures, which empowers people living with disabilities and provides proper equipment for them to enjoy outdoor activities, stores the bikes at the park because it's convenient. They organize group rides there twice a month and it's difficult to transport so many bulky bikes. The one downside is that there are no security cameras watching the container.

Jerry Ketelhut, the executive director for the adaptive recreation program, estimated the loss to be about $30,000. His nonprofit owns the bicycles, but lets the community with physical challenges use them."There's not a lot of people who can go out and buy a $4,000 cycle or a $1,500 cycle, so that's why we're very important for them," he explained. "Outdoor recreation is a form of therapy for them," he added.

Ketelhut has had to put the program on hold until the nonprofit can replace the adaptive bicycles. "It's devastating," he said. “You should be able to identify them because they’re not common.”

Kristen Klenk, 54, isn't able to ride a regular bicycle. She was born with cerebral palsy and needs a special recumbent bike to ride. “I’m so sad,” she said.

If you see any of the cycles similar to the ones you see here, Ketelhut asks you to contact the call the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6151. (Click number to call from this story on your mobile device.)

CLICK HERE to donate a cycle.

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Phoenix nonprofit looking for answers after dozens of speciality bikes for people with disabilities were stolen 12news.com KPNX

Phoenix nonprofit looking for answers after dozens of speciality bikes for people with disabilities were stolen
The Jan. 4 burglary was the second theft that Daring Adventures experienced in Phoenix in just a matter of months.

It was the last thing Jerry Ketelhut expected to see when he opened the storage crate: Nothing.

The dozens of specialty bikes that resided in the steel shipping container were gone.

Ketelhut’s organization, Daring Adventures, supplies the handcycles, recumbent bicycles and trikes that people with disabilities rely on to enjoy the outdoors.

Volunteers team with people with physical limitations to ride the 35 miles of bike trails around Phoenix.

Not only does Daring Adventures have its regulars, Barrow Neurological center also partners with the organization for physical therapy for some of its patients.

But now the entire program is now in jeopardy.

In the early morning hours of Jan. 4, at least one person broke into the metal storage container that Daring Adventures uses to store its bikes and stole as many as they could.

Around 9:00 a.m. that Saturday morning, a City of Phoenix staff member, performing a routine check of the park where Daring Adventures stores their bikes, found the container open, with a lock laying on the ground.

“I opened up the door and can pretty much see we were all cleaned out," Ketelhut, the executive director of Daring Adventures, said.

“We had to stop the whole program and now everybody is suffering because of it.”

Without bikes, Daring Adventures -- at least its cycling program -- is grounded.

Second theft in matter of months
In November 2019, nine standard bikes were stolen from the shipping container the Daring Adventures uses.

But that theft wasn’t as devastating as the latest.

Volunteers use the standard bikes to ride along with the participants. It was a problem the nonprofit was able to work around.

Ketelhut took measures to create a safer environment to store the bikes. He upgraded the locks and reinforced the container doors.

The park where the container is located is the ideal location to run the program.

In 1990, Daring Adventures operated as River of Dreams, a City of Phoenix Recreation program for the disabled.

When the city cut funding for the program in 2011, Daring Adventures was born. They were able to maintain their location at Rose Mofford Sports Complex, where the city’s 35 miles of bike paths conflux.

Now what?
“It’s devastating,” Ketelhut said. “Especially to happen twice. So now we are not able to continue with the cycling program because we don’t have enough cycles - or the right type of cycles - for the participants who are currently in the program.”

Daring Adventures will have to suspend the cycling program -- temporarily, they hope.

Even if the bikes are replaced or returned, a new storage solution must be found.

“You know, it’s going to be difficult to get these cycles replaced, but more so how are we going to protect them moving forward?”

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Daring Adventures host other adventures for those with disabilities, such as hiking trips, kayaking trips and sled hockey games. But the cycling program was the backbone of the program.

Anyone who might have any information on this crime is encouraged to contact the Phoenix Police Department at 602-262-6151.

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Bikes for people with disabilities stolen from Phoenix nonprofit AZCentral

Daring Adventures, which provides recumbent bicycles for community events that can be used by people with disabilities, was forced to stop its services because a thief stole over two-thirds of its inventory.

A burglar broke into the charity's storage container near 25th and Peoria avenues and stole the bikes designed for people with disabilities between Friday night and early Saturday morning last weekend, according to Phoenix police.

The thief broke the lock on the storage container and removed several bikes worth thousands of dollars, said Detective Luis Samudio, a public information officer for the Phoenix Police Department.

Jerry Ketelhut, the director of nonprofit Daring Adventures, said he lost around $30,000 worth of bikes between the theft this weekend and a theft in November.

But the impact on opportunities for people in the disabled community is much greater.

"We, as able bodied individuals, take it for granted that we can get on a bike or to go buy a bike at the local store," Ketelhut said. "The individuals we serve don't have the funds to go out and buy a $2,500 or $4,000 piece of equipment to go cycling."

Ketelhut has been forced to suspend the cycling program for Daring Adventures because of the limited number of bikes he has left.

"The first time when it happened in November, I was shocked that anybody would do this," Ketelhut said. "But we were able to continue on with our cycling program with some additional bikes we were borrowing. Now that it's happened a second time, I'm devastated."

Ketelhut said there isn't a large market for selling recumbent bicycles, so it is likely the bikes the thief took are being turned into scrap for reclamation.

Ketelhut and the police are monitoring online resale sites for recumbent bicycles that might be linked to the theft from Daring Adventures.

Donate to Daring Adventures at https://www.daring-adventures.org/

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