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Anonymous donor replaces stolen bike

A New West teen whose mountain bike was stolen outside a 7-Eleven earlier this month will be riding a new set of wheels around town, thanks to an anonymous donor. Sam Birosh was biking in Sapperton around 5 p.m. on Sept.
Sam Birosh
Stolen: Sam Birosh, 14, poses for a photo with his nephew Yonas. This is the only picture mom Kelly has of her son with his bike, which was stolen on Sept. 2 from outside the 7-Eleven at East Columbia and Braid streets.

A New West teen whose mountain bike was stolen outside a 7-Eleven earlier this month will be riding a new set of wheels around town, thanks to an anonymous donor.

Sam Birosh was biking in Sapperton around 5 p.m. on Sept. 2 when he decided to make a quick stop at the convenience store (at East Columbia and Braid street). After about a minute inside, Birosh came out to find his bike missing.

“He was just frantic,” mom Kelly told the Record in a previous interview. “He ran around looking for it. He phoned me, and I told him to call the police.”

Sam had always been good at taking care of it and locking it up, according to Kelly, who added he didn’t even want to store the bike in a locker in the basement of their apartment.

“He wanted it in the house,” she said. “He asked me every day when he was little, ‘Can I ride my bike today?’”

It was especially valuable to Birosh because he had used all his savings to buy it off Craigslist and even got a paper route to help cover the cost of maintenance.

Kelly’s hope was that by sharing her son’s story, the thief would come forward having learned the value of what was stolen. Instead, the Record received an email from a local resident, who wished to remain anonymous but wanted to help financially.

“What got me was, someone decided to take something that wasn’t theirs, and left a kid with a shattered view of society,” the email from the resident read. “A couple of my kids had similar incidents growing up. …Once it was a street hockey stick, but one that my son had spent a lot of time getting just right, so in his eyes it was irreplaceable.”

The donor added that after a handful of grandkids, teaching life lessons – like why didn’t Sam lock his bike that day? – is less important than teaching youngsters to give back to the community they live in.

“There’s also the side of me which says that events like this (the bike theft) are what turn young kids bitter, so maybe this is a chance to show Sam that there is good out there as well,” the email read.

The Birosh family couldn't be reached for comment.