Carmen Gambino

Carmen Gambino stands in the driveway where two men with shotguns robbed him after knocking him of his bicycle early Thursday morning. He said he doesn't wan the story to be about him. "Focus on the injustice to cyclists, and how it's not OK to use a car as a weapon against cyclists or pedestrians."

(Cory Shaffer, Northeast Ohio Media Group)

Two men wielding shotguns robbed 27-year-old Carmen Gambino of his cell phone and this custom-made bag, which he said had a Moleskin notebook full of frame prototypes and customer orders that were priceless to him.

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Cyclist Carmen Gambino was taking the familiar route home from his job at a downtown bar early Thursday morning when a black sedan "came out of nowhere," hit him and knocked him off his bike near Bridge Avenue, in the heart of Ohio City.

A man with dreadlocks, a bandana over his face and a sawed-off shotgun in hand then jumped out of the passenger side door, Gambino said in an interview Friday with the Northeast Ohio Media Group.

Gambino, 27, a frame-builder by day, said the gunman forced him between two houses and grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. When Gambino tried to push the man away, he said, the driver got out of the car with a full-size shotgun.

Gambino then handed over his custom-made bag and said his wallet was inside, though the wallet was in his front pocket. The men got back in the car and drove away, but not before Gambino memorized the license plate.

"As a cyclist, that's the most important thing you can do to make sure that you can get justice," Gambino said.

Gambino said police provided him a photo lineup after running the license plate though a state database, and he pointed to the driver.

Gambino hopes police recover the bag, which was designed by a friend and had a Moleskin notebook full of Gambino's prototypes and designs for his frame-building business.

"I've lived in Cleveland for five years, it's not the first time I've had a gun stuck in my face and it won't be the last," Gambino said. "This happens more than people think. It's not OK to use a car as a weapon against a cyclist."

Anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact the second district detective bureau at 216-623-5218.