Thief spoils cancer survivor's bicycling dream S.F. CRIME

A $13,000, custom hand-cranked bicycle specially equipped for a disabled person, stolen from a visiting Polish rider in San Francisco on June 6, 2012. A $13,000, custom hand-cranked bicycle specially equipped for a disabled person, stolen from a visiting Polish rider in San Francisco on June 6, 2012. Photo: Photo From San Francisco Police Photo: Photo From San Francisco Police Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Thief spoils cancer survivor's bicycling dream 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A thief has put the brakes on the dream of a Polish cancer survivor, double amputee and Paralympics athlete to hand pedal across the United States from San Francisco to New York, making off with his prized $13,000 custom-made bicycle Thursday from a locked San Francisco entryway.

Krzyszof (Christopher) Jarzebski, 53, arrived in California last week and was staying on Linden Alley in Hayes Valley, police say, when someone drilled a hole in a locked gate of an apartment Thursday morning and stole his ride from the stairwell.

The Rev. Ted Rusnak of the Polish Church of the Nativity in San Francisco said that Jarzebski said his home was the scene of the crime and that the thievery stalled what was supposed to be the beginning of the more than 3,000-mile journey on Friday.

"He is a master in the world in Paralympics, especially hand biking," Rusnak said. "He was doing this - it was his dream, to prove he can do this."

Jarzebski - who lost his legs in 1991 from cancer after serving in an elite unit of the Polish Navy - has ridden all around Europe on similar hand crank bicycles, but the one stolen early Thursday was made just for this journey. He lives in Pabianice, in central Poland, and had a long list of sponsors in his country for the trip.

Jarzebski hoped to travel at a pace of more than 200 miles a day on Interstate 80 to make it to New York, Rusnak said.

But at 6 a.m. Thursday, the athlete discovered the bicycle gone from the locked entryway in the 200 block of Linden Alley.

The bike has a distinctive sticker with the letters AZSLODZ emblazoned on the side - one of his Polish sponsors. A doctor who is traveling with Jarzebski, Vladimir Zgoda, said the athlete hopes he can either get the bicycle back or arrange for another journey with a normal wheelchair.

"Now he must realize Plan B," Zgoda said. "Maybe we ask the person who robbed this bicycle to give it back to Christopher. Maybe he made a mistake. If you are an honorable man, you can give this bicycle back. A lot of good people want to help us."

Anyone with any information about the crime is urged to contact the San Francisco Police Department at its anonymous tip line - (415) 575-4444 - or text-a-tip at TIP411, or call Sgt. Victoria Sullivan at the Northern Station Investigations Team at (415) 614-3465.