Phila. Woman Gets Back Her Stolen Bike, $253 Later

A Salvation Army worker has her stolen bicycle back, but she had to pay a pawnshop to get it.

KYW's Steve Tawa reports that someone cut the lock and made off with Mary Harmer's bike while she just 10 feet away, working a red kettle at a center city hotel.

Missing her entry-level race bike,  Harmer, 27, scoured Craigslist and Ebay, and eventually saw it posted for sale nearly three weeks later at a South Street pawn shop.

Armed with her receipt, which had the serial number, she went to Society Hill Loan and Music along with city police detectives to reclaim it:

"They confirmed it was my bike, but they told me that unfortunately I would have to pay what the pawn shop paid the man who sold it to them to get it back."

Pennsylvania state law reads that victims of theft who find their stolen goods in a pawnshop must reimburse the pawnbroker.  So Harmer had to pay the $253 that the pawnbroker paid to buy the bike.

Owner Nat Leonard says he got two forms of ID from the guy who sold the bike to the shop:

"I'm just going by the law.  Believe me, we had no idea the bike was stolen."

He says his family has been in the pawn shop business since 1929 and enjoys a solid reputation:

"We had a guy who came in here and wanted to sell two Apple computers.  We turned them on, they said 'Philadelphia School District.'   We tried to delay the guy.  He got nervous and he ran out. I called Major Crimes, and we got them back for the school district."