BOWLING GREEN, Ohio — Eric Rine has never let spina bifida get in his way and typically uses his adaptive bike to get around Bowling Green.
“I’ve had this bike for forever, and it's been my lifeline,” said Eric.
On Tuesday night, Eric’s nearly $3,500 adaptive hand crank bike was stolen from his parents' wheelchair accessible van.
“We keep the bike in his van so it's easily accessible, and yesterday morning we realized our vehicles had all been gone through,” said Stephanie Rine, Eric's mom.
The Bowling Green Police Department put out a call asking the community to keep an eye out and social media users quickly spread the word. In the meantime, security footage captured people using the bike not long after it was stolen.
“A simple post yesterday morning has just blown up into about 500 shares and the police department has been working so hard,” said Stephanie.
BGPD Deputy Chief Justin White said they always work to get stolen items back to their rightful owners, but felt this item was especially important to find.
“When somebody steals something like this, from somebody that obviously needs this and it's a special thing for them, you do take it kind of personal," said White.
Police charged 23-year-old Cameron Fox with stealing Eric's bike and said this arrest also led to other discoveries.
But for police, the important thing is that Eric's bike is not damaged and rightfully returned to him.