Cyclist reunited with stolen £4,500 bike after social media campaign

A cyclist has been reunited with his £4,500 bike after a social media campaign tracked it down to Spain four months after it was stolen in London.

Hydro-power developer James Vernon took to Twitter and Facebook to advertise details of the bike, which was a specialist Parlee Z1 made in America.

Luckily, a bike racing professional, Armand Kabarec-Quiroz, spotted a tweet James had sent to @StolenRide, the Twitter community that helps find bikes stolen from London.

According to the Evening Standard, Armand had already seen a friend's stolen bike for sale on a Spanish internet page, and thought a Z1 he'd seen on there might be James'.

He found Mr Vernon's appeals and sent him a tweet saying: "I think I have good news about your stolen bike."

With the help of Spanish police, the pair then managed to get the bike back from the seller, and James then flew out to Barcelona to pick it up.

James' bike was stolen from outside his Islington flat, and was just one of 20,000 such incidents in London every year.

Speaking to London24, Richard Cantle, who founded Stolen Ride after his own bike was stolen and he tried to locate it on Twitter, said: "I could not be happier for James and am thankful for the work that Armand put into making this possible.

"It really shows how unique and strong the cycling community is around the world and the true connecting power of social media."

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