EVERETT, Wash. — An Everett mother says she's had enough after she saw someone riding around the neighborhood on her son's stolen bike.
Sunday night, two weeks after it was stolen from her fenced in front yard, Cate Harrington spotted a total stranger riding her son's bicycle.
She was determined to get it back and followed the man to a pizza place in Everett where she asked -- nicely at first – for the bike to be returned.
“I pulled in there and said, ‘Hey, that's my son's bike,” and he kind of did this – ‘Oh s—t, oh s—t,’ and I got out of my car and he jumped over the curb and took off,” said Harrington.
Again, she followed him in her car and asked him nicely for the bike's safe return.
"I said, ‘Hey, stop and give me the bike or just give me the bike and we're good,’ and he started calling me some names and then threatened to shoot me, and that's when I got my phone out and started recording him,” said Carrington.
That's when Cate says all niceties went out the window.
"I mean in the heat of the moment, you say some things,” said Carrington.
The thief got away, but Cate hopes he will be caught.
Discouraged by drug and property crime, Carrington has run a Facebook group called "Take Back Our Neighborhood,” for nearly four years.
The group has cleaned up homeless camps in community spaces like Clarke Park and anywhere used needles are found in abundance.
Harrington posted the video on the group page asking nicely for the bike back, but this time her plea is directed at others just as fed up as she is.
"I'm really pissed. It’s my kid, and that's what it's about. It’s not even about the bike anymore. It's the principle. He stole from my child,” said Carrington.
Everett police say property crime is actually down by about 800 reports from 2017-2018. They encourage residents to report crimes because officers will do emphasis patrols as long as they can establish a crime trend in the area.
Cox Media Group
