Brooklyn bike theft leads to small acts of kindness

When Amanda Needham's bike was stolen from the front yard of her New York City apartment, she decided to draw attention to the injustice by making a sign.

Needham wrote in giant yellow letters on an eight-by-three-foot piece of cardboard and secured it to her landlord's fence outside her home on March 3.

It read: "To the person who stole my bike, I hope you need it more than me. It was $200 used and I need it to get to work. I can't afford another one. Next time, steal a hipster's Peugeot. Or not steal! P.S. Bring it back!"

'It's really not about me, and it's not about the bike either. It's about passing along something small and positive.- Amanda Needham, Brooklyn cyclist 

Later that week, a man knocked on her door. 

"He was with a twinkle in his eye, looking at my sign," Needham told As It Happens host Carol Off. 

Steve Powers, who buys and sells art, saw Needham's sign and decided he could do something to help her out.

"He looked at me. He said, 'I'm an art dealer and I think there's a lot of craftsmanship here. I'd like to buy your sign for $200,'" she said.

He and another art dealer agreed to buy her sign for the cost of her used bike so she could afford to buy another one.

"I really was beside myself," she said. "I didn't know if he was serious or not."

The kindness of strangers

Powers was one of three memorable people who knocked at Needham's door in the week that her sign was up.

She said one woman gave her a hug and offered to bring her a new bike.

"I put my hands on my heart and I said, 'Thank you so much,'" Needham said.

Two young men also saw her sign and brought her a used kid's mountain bike that had a flat tire, she said.

One of the men told her that he'd had the old bike lying around and he brought it because he thought she might be able to use it.

He explained that he'd had his bike stolen before too, she said.

Going viral with #karmacycle

Needham said she was touched by the generosity.

She brought the donated bike in to get tuned up at a local bike shop called Court Cycles. 

This bike, nicknamed the #karmacycle because it represents good deeds being passed on, will be raffled off for free to a member of the community who needs it.

The hashtag has since gone viral, as has Needham's story.

"This sign was changing things," she wrote in the Washington Post.

"So much humanity was pouring out from such a simple gesture of opening myself up to the universe."

Needham said she wasn't out to get her 15 minutes of fame when she wrote the sign.

Instead, she said wanted to acknowledge what had happened — and hopefully get her bike back.

While she didn't end up having her bike returned to her, she's happy with how things turned out. 

"It's really not about me, and it's not about the bike either," she said.

"It's about passing along something small and positive."

Written by Anna Cianni. Interview produced by Mary Newman.