Recently in Toronto over 2,000 stolen bikes were found, which is good news itself. Now, after the public has been given a chance to reclaim their bikes, community groups are championing the idea that the stolen bikes should be give to the poor. The bikes that have been stripped for their parts should be given to local non-profit bike organizations to help them run their bicycling operations.

Heaps said the city can’t get directly involved, but it has encouraged interested outside groups to raise the matter with Toronto police, who seized the bikes after arresting bike shop owner Igor Kenk and laying a series of charges related to bike theft and drugs.

“There are many people out there who cannot afford a bicycle,” Heaps said. “They probably would benefit from a second-hand bike that was safe and sound.”

One interested group is the Community Bicycle Network, but a project of that size would likely need a number of groups to get together, said its spokesperson Sherri Byer.

“Everybody would like to see (the bikes) go back into the community in some kind of goodwill manner,” Byer said in an interview yesterday.

“They could go back to community organizations and go to people on low income who need bikes. It would be nice to see something good done with them.”

Toronto police have been getting “continual requests and suggestions on just how to deal with these bikes,” said spokesperson Const. Wendy Drummond.