©23/08/2008
Photo: zandersaar.
The 2200 bikes, 2 pickups and the house on Queen West which the police had impounded from Igor Kenk are headed to the auction block. Kenk made a deal with the Crown to allow the Crown to keep the proceeds from the sale of the bikes and pickups, with Igor keeping the proceeds from the house after the Crown has taken its legal costs. If Kenk had not made a deal in the government's lawsuit, the Crown could have confiscated all his property under the Civil Remedies Act.
The 50-year-old bike repairman and self-described recycler is in the Toronto (Don) Jail, awaiting trial on almost 80 theft and drug charges. He's also in the midst of an assault trial.
Under the agreement, the province keeps the proceeds from the sale of the bikes, bike parts and his 1998 and 2001 pickup trucks.
But after his building is sold – less deductions for property management and sale costs, and after outstanding hydro, tax and other arrears are paid – the remaining money will be divided thus:
$50,000 for the Crown.
$65,000 for Legal Aid Ontario, to defray the costs of Kenk's criminal defence.
The remainder to be put in trust for Kenk by his lawyer.
Ninety per cent of Kenk's bicycles are worth $20 or less and the whole lot – being temporarily stored in a former high school – would fetch an estimated $50,580 at auction, the Crown says in a court document.
But after subtracting the cost of vendor commissions and of delivering the bikes from storage to the auction site, the net proceeds would be $11,870, the Crown says.
Are we soon to see a flood of used bikes on the market?
Comments
jamesmallon (not verified)
Hope so!
Sat, 12/05/2009 - 19:14I am short a 29r in my quiver of bikes...
Svend
Why are the wheels of justice so slow?
Sat, 12/05/2009 - 22:23You can bet Igor is paying a higher price than Michael Bryant for his alleged crimes.
electric
All very tidy.
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 01:32Just some food for thought if you're considering attending...
Every cyclist deplores the thief, yet a voracious mass of hypocrites have been eagerly waiting in the wind. These hypocrites will attend this auction and predictably throw their hard earned money at many weather-beaten bicycles in attempts to secure a "steal" or perhaps the entrepreneurial ones will even aim to turn a profit. It is sure to be quite a mob.
Hypocrisy, the TPS and the criminal world meld together again. In this current case "the fence" and the Toronto police service are synonymous. The Toronto police have shape-shifted into a legitimate and legal fence, the likes of which the lowly and quirky Igor would have only been able to dream of. Remember though, nobody said you ever get something for nothing.
When you attend and compulsively throw down your money at the auction house remember that, now, you too, are profiting along with each link in the chain since that bicycle was stolen. It is you, the last link in that dirty chain, who will profit directly from the misfortune of fellow "strangers" whose lives have been crossed and crushed via Toronto's criminal world. Will the lucky auction winners cry injustice and bemoan their hardship next time their bicycle is stolen? Probably. Though I wonder what grounds they have for such a complaint.
Who comes first, the thief or the buyer?
Svend
I disagree, electric
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 08:00It's not hypocritical to buy recovered stolen goods. I'd say the police did an unusually good job of trying to return the bikes and now the next step is to deal with the leftovers. If they donated them to charity, would you say the charity encourage theft?
There isn't a link between them being stolen and them being auctioned off. The police aren't creating a market for stolen goods.
How should they deal with the bikes, electric?
electric
Thats ok
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 16:49I just wanted people to wrap that around their head while they wrap their hands around their new bicycle handlebars. Question how this bicycle came to them.
You say there is no link, but that isn't true. Your fellow Torontonians of yesteryear had to lose for you to get this deal. Maybe it is the zeal with which people snap up other people's stolen goods that I find offensive and hypocritical. I'm just being an idealist. In the real world we know such acts of apparent amnesia are well accepted by the public, sanctioned by the authorities and even more so if the goods are baptized by charity auction. Despite this elaborate rationalization, to me, a stolen bicycle is still a stolen bicycle.
Svend
Stolen bikes
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 00:01Yes, a stolen bicycle is still a stolen bicycle, but there isn't a link to the police getting rid of them and the theft.
There's no amnesia, you even said the public knows they were stolen.
I asked how would you deal with the bikes, would you have them donated to a worthy cause?
Would that link theft with helpful people and also get your wrath?
electric
Donation would be nice
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 00:29Offhand, what might be nice to see, are the stolen bicycles handed out to people who will or who have had bicycles stolen in Toronto. Provide a valid police report, receive a free beater bicycle for your troubles. This seems like a worthy cause. Instead we're going to dump them into an auction. There are auctioneer and police salaries to pay after all.
If you still don't believe there is a link between police selling stolen bicycles and the theft of those very bicycles I don't know what to say other than, the evidence is sitting right there on the police auctioning block.
Even if those helpful people, whomever you had in mind, were offering stolen bikes they would still be offering stolen bikes - right?
The Pedaller (not verified)
Been Caught Stealing
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 10:34Maybe we could take a few hundred bikes and scatter them around the city, locked up with flimsy cable locks?
This way the would be theives could feast on these and not my bike!
Cpt_Sunshine
Connection?
Tue, 12/08/2009 - 00:26How is there a connection? Are you claiming that the police are promoting the theft of bicycles for their profit? This doesn't make any sense.
Criminals steal the bicycles to obtain profit. If the police are effective in eliminating criminals from profiting, they eliminate the motive for the theft in the first place. When you buy a bike from a police auction none of that money is going to the original thief. Therefore there is no connection whatsoever from buying a bike at a police auction and the original theft.
electric
Last post
Tue, 12/08/2009 - 20:59There is a connection. If the thief, police, and eventual buyer weren't connected then the transaction of the stolen bicycle could not have been completed.
I'm not claiming the police promote theft, more like the hypocritical consumer promotes theft. Police are just middle-men in this case, like Igor was until a larger player decided to swallow him up.
Svend
An auction buyer doesn't promote theft
Wed, 12/09/2009 - 16:18You're not making sense, why not also say the bike owner is part of the transaction because they bought the bicycle in the first place?
Hey, why not include the store who initially sold it as well?
Their hands are just as dirty as the guy who goes goes to the police auction if we follow your logic. An auction buyer doesn't promote theft, he doesn't create a market for it either.
Out of all these people, the police are the ones who stopped Igor. However they dispose of the bikes, they still end up in the hands of another cyclist.
W P (not verified)
Electric, why is it wrong to
Thu, 12/24/2009 - 09:45Electric, why is it wrong to have the police (who act on behalf of the public) sell the recovered goods? That is the most reasonable thing to do at this point. Do you really think we could "give them all back to their original owners"? That means, asking people to line up, and either lie or tell the truth, and asking someone else to sort out the liars from the people telling the truth. What do you think? Electric? Your alternative plan is absent from your comment.
W
Seymore Bikes
Remnants
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 10:35I walked those warehouses twice in an effort to find my old cycles and I remember that most of the bikes I saw were missing parts like wheels, forks & seats; and then there were the rims - there had to be thousands of them.
So in short, I see this as more of a parts liquidation than a bike sale. Maybe Bike Pirates could receive the stuff that doesn’t clear at auction?
jamesmallon (not verified)
Property-based society
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 10:55All of the bikes rightly should go to non-profits, whether TBN, Bike Pirates or the like. I'd love to see them sent to schools in neighbourhoods where families have fewer means, and fixed up in shop classes... if there is still any room in the curriculum for something so practical.
However, our society has no higher ethic than property, and can't conceive of any higher good than the accumulation of profit. Scratch that: our species thinks that way. There is no way for the people making the decisions of what to do with the stolen 'property' to conceive of any end for them but a partial 'recovery' of said 'property'.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said the rich are not like you and me. Well, I don't know about their wealth, but few people who court 'respectability' (lawyers, et al.) are like those of us who ride with regularity, and who'd see another purpose in these bikes.
anonymous (not verified)
if I told you that...
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 18:52...there are quite a few lawyers who "ride with regularity", would that blow your mind?
jamesmallon (not verified)
Property-based society
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 10:55All of the bikes rightly should go to non-profits, whether TBN, Bike Pirates or the like. I'd love to see them sent to schools in neighbourhoods where families have fewer means, and fixed up in shop classes... if there is still any room in the curriculum for something so practical.
However, our society has no higher ethic than property, and can't conceive of any higher good than the accumulation of profit. Scratch that: our species thinks that way. There is no way for the people making the decisions of what to do with the stolen 'property' to conceive of any end for them but a partial 'recovery' of said 'property'.
F. Scott Fitzgerald said the rich are not like you and me. Well, I don't know about their wealth, but few people who court 'respectability' (lawyers, et al.) are like those of us who ride with regularity, and who'd see another purpose in these bikes.
Random cyclist (not verified)
donations
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 13:14I would recommend that people consider buying some decent bikes from the auction at rock-bottom prices and donating them to CBN or Bike Pirates. I'm sure it would be appreciated. If there are kids bikes for sale, I'm sure there are organizations that would love them too.
Random cyclist (not verified)
donations
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 13:16I would recommend that people consider buying some decent bikes from the auction at rock-bottom prices and donating them to CBN or Bike Pirates. I'm sure it would be appreciated. If there are kids bikes for sale, I'm sure there are organizations that would love them too.
commuter59 (not verified)
Where and when?
Sun, 12/06/2009 - 15:54Any idea where and when this auction will take place?
Donald S (not verified)
State of the bikes
Mon, 12/07/2009 - 10:54When I went down to the police warehouse to see if my stolen bike was there, I had visions of finding it and riding it home in triumph.
Alas, not only was it not there, but a good 80% of the bikes were non ride-able for one reason or another (missing wheels, seats, rusty gears, etc.).
I do like the idea of donating them to some community group to rebuild, but it's likely that there are very strict rules about what the police can do with unclaimed property, and that option may be a lot more trouble then we think.
Chilled (not verified)
Not quite done with Igor
Sun, 12/13/2009 - 00:44Complete all of this with a good old fashioned deportation and I would then concur that justice was served.
Darren_S
Why it is wrong.
Thu, 12/24/2009 - 14:35I am not speaking for Electric.
It is wrong because the proceeds will be used to buy anniversary gifts for the cops. These includes watches for so many years of service.
Wrong because the cops let Igor exist for so long. Hell, they were sending victims of bike theft to Igor's to look for their bikes.
I would not have a problem if the bikes were sold en masse or even donated to those who cannot afford to buy bikes.
The cops "act on behalf of the public", well I think in theory maybe but in practice it is a far reach.
geoffrey
.. the public ..
Tue, 12/29/2009 - 16:59..the public the police see fit act on the behalf of. 905ers commuting downtown? Pharmaceutical companies avoiding prosecution and looking to "captivate" a market with addictive "medicines"?
The police act as enablers for their favoured establishments including boozecans like Amicos Pizza that delivers alcohol afterhours. I've seen 11s3 sit while drunks exiting Amicos faught at 5 am.