Blood stain leads to alleged Nova Scotia bike thief: ‘It’s a bummer’
When thieves stole Florian Bauer’s $6,500 mountain bike from an apartment building in north-end Halifax a year ago, one of them made a crucial mistake.
It was Sept. 9, 2022 when Bauer reported the break-in to his Harris Street building’s locked bike room in the parking garage.
“Patrol officers on scene observed a broken window and blood droplets on the floor, wall and parking garage floor,” Halifax Regional Police Det.-Const. Brad Murray said in an application for a production order.
The building manager pointed out a metal tow hook he believed the thieves used to smash the window so they could reach through and unlock the bike room door from the inside, Murray said.
The building manager “indicated that the blood was not present prior to the break and enter,” Murray said.
‘Captured on video’
Two men “were captured on video during the incident, and one of the suspects was holding a rag on his arm as though it had been cut,” said the detective.
Surveillance video shows them smashing the window to the bike room and cutting the locks off the two bikes, Murray said.
“They also cut the two locks I had on my bike,” Bauer said Friday in a telephone call from his new home in Comox, B.C., noting the thieves appeared to use a battery-powered grinder for that.
Bauer’s Specialized brand mountain bike, which he bought at Truro’s Hub Cycle and had just used a week before to pedal the hills of Wentworth Valley, as well as a $1,000 Kona bicycle belonging to another resident of the building, had been stolen.
Painful loss
Losing the most expensive bike he’d ever owned was painful.
“Something that you worked so hard to pay for to help with your own mental and physical health just being taken away, it’s a bummer,” Bauer said.
Police at the scene told him a lot of bikes vanished that day.
“They stole between 40 and 50 bikes that night,” Bauer said.
“They hit up not just the apartment building I was in but, like, all of them down Agricola. . . . They suspect it was the same two people.”
Match confirmed
Forensic officers went over the crime scene from Bauer’s building three days after the bikes were stolen, Murray said.
“A swab of the blood was obtained and sent for DNA analysis. On Feb. 1, 2023 a match was confirmed by the National Forensic Lab.”
The blood DNA profile “has been linked to a number of HRP files dating back to 2020,” the detective said in information to obtain a production order filed at Halifax provincial court.
The blood on the floor matched that of Gregory Paul Forrest, 40.
When Murray plugged that name into a police database in early March, it turned out Forrest was already in custody at the Northeast Nova Scotia Correctional Facility.
Due in court
He was due in court that same day to answer to 28 charges related to breaching court orders, stealing a car, fraud, assaulting a police officer, and break and enter.
The detective convinced a justice of the peace to grant a production order to take a blood sample from the prisoner.
“I have reasonable grounds to believe that Gregory Forrest was a party to the offence,” Murray said.
But he wanted to make sure by getting a sample from Forrest and comparing it to the swabs taken from the scene of the crime.
The detective got his sample from Forrest on May 2.
Bauer never heard much back from police about his stolen bike.
“I only just got a file number about two months ago,” he said.
Wanted thief charged
Bauer told police at the time of the break-in that he wanted to press charges if they caught the thieves as it was theft over $5,000.
“That’s the last I ever heard of it,” he said.
Luckily, Bauer had his road bike inside his apartment to do some maintenance on it when the thieves struck.
“I’m sure that one would have got stolen, too, because that one was also expensive.”
Bauer’s not surprised police were able to track down one of the culprits by testing the blood he left behind.
“That part doesn’t surprise me, that they could do it,” he said.
“I’m surprised that they actually did do it and I didn’t hear anything about it.”
The worst part is Bauer never got his stolen bike back.
‘Went to all the pawn shops’
“No, I never ever did,” he said.
“I went to all the pawn shops.”
Bauer also registered his stolen Specialized with several web-based services that try to help people find their purloined pedals.
“Lots of these bikes that get stolen end up in Montreal and then go into warehouses and stay there for a couple of months until people stop looking for bikes,” he said.
“And then they usually get shipped to the West Coast and (stolen) bikes on the West Coast get shipped to the east.”
He’s offering a $150 reward for his stolen StumpJumper 12-speed but doesn’t have much hope he’ll see it again.
Wants bike back
Bauer, 33, replaced the stolen mountain bike with a cheaper option, but he’s still keeping an eye out for the one stolen in Halifax.
“If it pops up in Vancouver it’s a bit easier because I just moved to Vancouver Island,” he said.
“It would be nice to have that bike back because that’s the type of bike I need for riding out here.”
Bauer and his partner are still keen on pedal power.
“We own five bikes,” he said.
“We’re avid cyclists so I do lots of mountain biking now that I’m out here.”
‘Clear the mind’
Bauer, who works in policy development for the Public Health Agency of Canada, said he bikes to clear his head.
“When you sit in front of a screen all the time, you just need to be able to get outside and clear the mind, so that’s where cycling comes into play.”
Forrest, who is behind bars on remand, doesn’t appear to have been charged with stealing Bauer’s bike. But he’s slated to appear in Halifax provincial court Sept. 12 to enter pleas on charges, including possession of stolen goods under $5,000, driving while disqualified, break and enter, failing to comply with release conditions and breaching probation.
Forrest is due back in court Oct. 13 to be sentenced for several break and enters, breaching probation, mischief, theft under $5,000, possession of stolen goods worth over $5,000, fleeing police, failing to stop at the scene of an accident, dangerous driving, driving while disqualified, mischief and failing to comply with release conditions.
He has a long list of previous convictions for theft, fraud, trafficking in credit cards, mischief, property damage, breaching probation, impaired driving, dangerous driving, obstructing a peace officer, car theft and possession of stolen goods.
