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VICTORIA — A Nanaimo woman whose mountain bike was stolen during a trip to Kelowna last year has been reunited with her wheels — with help from a smartphone app.

Kathy Gonzales was contacted by police after listing her bike on 529 Garage, a website and phone app that allows cyclists to register details and photos of their bikes. If a registered bike is stolen, an alert is sent out to fellow 529 Garage users. Police can also use the searchable database to locate stolen bikes.

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Gonzales had her high-end bike stolen from the bike rack on her car in September, and efforts to recover it were unsuccessful.

Her stolen bike was brought into a Vancouver bike shop for resale late last month, and following a search of the 529 Garage database, the store owner saw that an exact match — which turned out to be Gonzales’s bike — was listed as stolen.

Vancouver cops were called and seized the bike, and returned it to Gonzales earlier this month.

“I’m thrilled to get my bike back,” she said in a Nanaimo RCMP release. “The process was so easy and the more people use it, the better it will be.”

Bike owners can register their bikes on 529 Garage through the App Store on iTunes or visit their website at 529garage.ca.

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