Man buys stolen £1,300 bike, returns it to owner, Halfords offers man free bike as reward

Benjamin Haworth

The power of social media and a Good Samaritan

Liverpudlian Ste Burke purchased the bike for £80, realising it was worth a whole lot more, and set about trying to track down its original owner.

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Ste Burke bought the bike for the princly sum of £80, recognising that the Whyte 901 was worth a lot more than that (around £1,300) and that someone has been robbed and was no doubt desperately missing their pride and joy.

After buying the bike, Mr Burke posted a picture of it on Twitter and asking if anyone knew who’s bike it was…

The Tweet went a tad viral, with thousands or retweets and comments. Eventually, the rightful owner of the bike was tracked down and the bike’s return sorted out. Mr Burke also told the owner that he didn’t even want his £80 back…

Mr Burke’s actions attracted loads of praise. Some celebrities even got in on the act.Here’s Stormzy and Ralf Little commenting…

Quoted in the Metro, Mr Burke said: “He thanked me as his home was recently burgled and it’s a bit of good news for him through the hard time he’s going through … He told me he got paid on Friday and could he send me the money then and I said no. I told him I didn’t feel right taking money off a man who has just had his house burgled.”

To top everything off, Halfords then spotted the story and contacted Mr Burke…

We’ve contacted Mr Burke and we’ll update this story when we hear what bike Halfords have offered him.