Good Samaritan sous-chef catches bike thief

A local sous-chef went above and beyond his job description when he chased after a bike thief in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and reunited the bike with its owner.  

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"I was at work and just having a conversation with a co-worker and we both noticed out of the corner of our eye somebody sprinting by the front of the restaurant with a bike on their shoulder," said Chris Husted, sous-chef at Bestie Cafe.

"Saw him running and it was very much a knee-jerk reaction," he said. 

Husted began running and yelling at the thief to drop the bike, who then abandoned it in the middle of the street. 

"I definitely felt quite angry, it was a brazen theft in broad daylight."

Sweet reunification

Rachel Peake was devastated and heartbroken that she has lost her only mode of transportation. 

"I was totally confused and was just wandering up and down the street looking for a bike that was missing," she said. 

Police told Peake that her best bet was to scour through Craiglsist ads and to go back to the scene of the crime to look for anyone riding her bike.

"Then I spotted this little note that was on a no parking sign that said, 'Looking for your red rocky mountain bike? At Bestie, caught someone stealing," she said. 

Peake ran into the restaurant yelling, "Is this for real?"

She was soon reunited with her bike. 

"I think the first thing I said was, 'Can I give you a hug?"

With files from the CBC's The Early Edition and Jake Costello.

To hear the full story listen to the audio labelled: Good Samaritan sous-chef catches bike thief.