Unpaid taxi fare leads Charlottetown woman to her stolen bike

Karen Murchison's bicycle was stolen from her workplace on Monday, so she turned to Facebook for help.

Several hundred shares later, Murchison got a message that her bike was at a taxi company, of all places.

The saga played out over several hours, and in the end Murchison got her beloved 21-year-old yellow bike back.

Riding it to work at the P.E.I. Farm Centre on Tuesday morning had her feeling "almost ecstatic," she said. 

The bike has been with her since 1997, when she moved to P.E.I., and was bought at MacQueen's Bike Shop with one of her first paycheques.

Shared more than 500 times

The story began when Murchison noticed the bike was missing after returning from lunch on Monday. It wasn't locked.

"It was really close to the building. I really didn't think I needed to lock my bicycle just outside of my place of work in a really small community like this."

Then she decided to post on Facebook to see if the social media community could help.

The post was shared more than 500 times and she eventually got a message from a man saying he thought he knew where it was — at Yellow Cab.

Cab driver recognizes bike

It turns out a driver for that company had dropped off a fare who said they didn't have the money to pay and would have to go inside.

"They did not return for a very long time," she said.

As the cab driver was waiting he noticed a yellow bicycle, recognized it from seeing Murchison's post and brought it back to Yellow Cab.

She offered to pay for the driver's lost fare, but they told her, "I didn't need to that, that wasn't my problem and they were just happy to give me my bicycle back."

'Connectedness on social media'

Murchison has now bought a lock for the bike. She said she wouldn't have it back if not for social media.

"It is an incredibly powerful testament to the power of community and our connectedness on social media," she said.

"It's how social media probably should be used."

More P.E.I. news