Thank you for getting Joe back on the road!
Donation protected
Joe Doucet is a 90-year-old community citizen. While running errands, he locked up his 3-week-old electric bike and ran in to get some rope. When he returned a few minutes later, the lock was cut, and a thief made off with his wheels.
These wheels provided Joe with the mobility he needed to provide for his wife and visit his son in town. After years toiling in the mines (and suffering a career ending injury) let's restore Joe's faith in humanity and help him purchase a new one.
The model Joe purchased is sold out across Canada, and initially, we were going to buy him a different brand at the cost of over $3,000. Thanks to the most amazing Ottawa family, they are willing to part with their brand new bike (same as Joe's) for a fraction of the cost - making us closer to our goal!
SUDBURY STAR ARTICLE BELOW:
Joe Doucet misses his wheels — three of them, to be specific.
The 90-year-old resident of New Sudbury had been using an electric trike to get around lately, as he’s not quite as nimble as he used to be.
The vehicle cost him more than $2,000 and he’d only had it about three weeks. Then, in less than 20 minutes, it was gone.
“Last Saturday, Aug. 20, I went into Princess Auto to buy 100 feet of rope that was on sale,” he said. “They have a place on the side of the store where you can park your bike, so I parked it there and locked it up. When I came out I couldn’t see the bike and thought: ‘What the heck is going on?’”
Doucet said a store employee had noticed a young man with black hair departing on the e-trike but didn’t realize at the time that he was stealing it.
“I guess she thought it was his bike,” he said. “But he left his own mountain bike there, and he took mine.”
Doucet said a staff member at Princess Auto, where he had purchased the e-trike, helped him report the crime to police.
Greater Sudbury Police spokesperson Kaitlyn Dunn said the service received a call around 2:10 p.m. regarding the theft, which occurred sometime between 1 p.m. and 1:40 p.m. on Aug. 20.
“The individual who stole the bike has been described as having a slim build with dark hair and was wearing a baseball cap at the time of the incident,” she said
The bike, made by Bozeman, is black in colour, with a basket on the back and orange safety lights on the wheels. It is equipped with Shimano shifter and derailleur, Mozo front shocks and Tektro disc brake.
The senior isn’t sure how the thief cut through the lock but is very sad and frustrated about the loss of his ride, as it allowed him some freedom and independence.
“I have a sore knee and can only walk maybe 100 or 200 feet and then I have to stop and rest, because I have a hard time breathing ,” he said. “So that bike was really nice for me. I was taking it to go Walmart, Canadian Tire, the dentist. I even went to see my son on King Street in the Flour Mill.”
Doucet is pleased police were notified but is not too optimistic the vehicle will be retrieved.
He also made a claim through his insurance company but had not heard back from them as of mid-week regarding potential compensation. “I don’t think I’ll get another bike but maybe I’ll get something,” he said. “I’ll wait and see anyway.”
A native of New Brunswick, Doucet moved to Sudbury after toiling as a miner in Elliot Lake and even as far afield as Saudi Arabia. Another stint of underground work followed in Levack, until an injury ended his mining career.
“I was in the shaft making a 2,000-feet raise (a vertical excavation that leads from one level or drift to another) when I got hurt,” he said. “I was on a machine where you go up to drill and blast, and something got hooked up on the side and fell on me. I had a broken shoulder, broken right leg and a concussion.”
He qualified for workers compensation — “that’s my old-age pension,” he said — but the fixed income doesn’t leave Doucet and his wife Elsie with a whole lot of spending money, so scooping up a replacement bike isn’t that simple.
“That’s the only transportation he had to go out,” said Elsie. “You know, he’s 90, and you can’t sit on the chair and rock all day. That’s why he got himself that bike, and it was expensive for him, but he enjoyed it so much. Now that he doesn’t have it, he’s kind of low now, every day.”
This is not to say that Doucet has been reduced to a state of total inactivity.
Reached on Tuesday, the senior had just been out back of the house, cleaning up a quad for his grandson to use. And on Thursday he plans to go fishing with his son at a small lake reached via portage from Panache Lake.
“That’s my pleasure,” he said. “I like to go for speckled trout, but this little lake off Panache is good for smallmouth bass. I went two times this summer already.”
The bass lake involves an overland trek of about a quarter-mile, he said, but that doesn’t scare him away.
“It’s not too far, and I have a cane I can use to walk over the portage,” he said. “Giving up is not my way. I have to keep going all the time.”
Dunn said the incident remains under investigation and anyone with information should contact Greater Sudbury Police at [phone redacted] or Crime Stoppers at 705-222-TIPS (8477), online at www.sudburycrimestoppers.com.
Organizer
Chantelle Gorham
Organizer
Levack, ON