WOODHAVEN, Mich. – The Woodhaven Police Department is putting the alert out for a thief who stole from two kids, a 12-year-old and a 14-year-old.
The bikes were stolen from the Target store on Allen Road.
Nicholas and Zachary Craft are from Indiana and are visiting family Downriver. They brought their bikes with them but forgot their bike locks.
They rode their bikes to Target, their uncle, Brody Kodki, walked with them.
“We were not going to put them in the front because we didn’t have bike locks,” said Nicholas Craft. “We were going in to buy one. So we put it in the back by a security camera in case anything like this happened. We put them by this like, electric thing and they were really well hidden.”
The teens say they were only in Target for about 30 minutes. When they discovered their bikes were gone, they thought it was a joke.
“We were shocked and didn’t actually think they were going to get stolen,” said Zachary Craft.
They contacted police, and Detective Lt. Jeff Brust said there is a possibility that what they call a scrapper could have picked the bikes up.
“We do have people that drive behind businesses,” Brust said. “You see them in front of your home on garbage day. They collect all the scrap metal; they’ll take all those items in exchange for money, so he may have been looking for scrap metal; clearly, these bikes weren’t scrap metal.”
Zachary Craft said he saved hundreds of dollars over months to purchase his bike as It cost him more than $700. He’s been checking Facebook market to make sure no one has tried to resell his bike.
WPD released a photo they got from a surveillance video on Facebook. Braft said the post has reached about 10,000 people and has received several tips.
“It’s crazy to think that that many people care and really wanted to share our posts,” Kodki said.
The Crafts hope their bikes are returned by the time they head back to Indiana on Saturday (April 3).
If you have any information as to the owner of the truck seen in the video player above or recognize the vehicle, call WPD at 734-676-7337.
