DALLAS -- It's been a tough week for Stiles Harper. Some unidentified thief stole a bike that was mounted and locked on the back of Harper’s SUV on Tuesday.
”It’s not just some bike,” Harper explained. “It means a good bit more to me than that.”
The bike belonged to Harper’s dad. The man owned it for more than 15 years and rode the bike regularly, before his unexpected death late last year.
"Back in August, it was very unexpected. Accidental. No one really saw that one coming. So it was definitely difficult," Harper said.
He says he doesn't just have a sentimental attachment to his dad’s Eddy Merckx collector’s edition. It's the bike he was hoping to ride, in his father’s memory, during the Ironman North American Championship in Houston next weekend.
"We had planned on competing in one together,” Harper said. “We were always very active together, and that was one thing we really wanted to do.”
Now, the worried man is doing everything he can to try tracking down the bike before his competition.
It was stolen on Sandhurst Lane near I-75 and Lovers in North Dallas.
“I was walking around the inside of the street on the car, and I saw the cable and the lock cut up and dropped in the middle," Harper said. "I knew automatically what had happened.”
So far, Harper has been leaving fliers with bike shops and scanning resale sites online, without any luck.
"Whoever stole the bike, we don’t even want to get them in trouble,” Harper explained. “We just want the bike back.”
The man hopes he will be able to get the bike back -- and soon.
If you spot the bike or have any information on its whereabouts, call Harper at (803) 429-1362.
