TOLEDO, Ohio — Why steal a bike when you can get one for free? That's the question a Toledo 10-year-old wants to create a solution for after his bike was stolen last week.
Bruce Godlewski said he used his bike to get to school early to be a crossing guard and was disappointed to find the bike was gone the day after spending over $200 on new gear.
The bike itself was $550 and now Bruce's family is offering a reward to get it back.
The Godlewskis said if the bike is returned it will be donated to a good cause and the thief will be forgiven. They want to give the person a chance to make it right.
"So, I was going to ride my bike to school, and I came down and I was fiddling with my keys trying to open the garage and when I finally opened the garage, I realized my bike isn't there," Bruce said.
Bruce said his first thought was the $800 his mom spent on the bike.
"I was like, man, I just got it all decked out and stuff I'm really sad that I don't have it anymore," he said.
Bruce is a safety guard and he used the bike to get to school and protect other children, his mom, Anneke Kurt, said.
"He rides to and from safety patrol every day. He does such a good job of taking care of other kids so the fact that someone took a bike from a child, it's just really crappy," Anneke said.
The family wants the bike returned only so they can offer forgiveness to the thief. The family already pulled together to get Bruce a new one.
"They surprised him with a new bike last night like an exact bike but we've had so many people offer to donate bikes," said Anneke Kurt.
The family is now asking folks to give a bike to Toledo bike shop Wersell's nonprofit, the Pedal On or Pay it Forward program.
"We will obviously repair them, get them safe and then we give them to people in need right now," Jill Wersell, the president of Wersell's, said. "We give a lot of them to people at the Cherry Street Mission and we give them to people at Harbor and things like that, so they have transportation to get to a job site."
Bruce is advocating bike safety ahead of summer. He said wear a helmet and lock up your bikes.