By Marc Lostracco

Cameraphones aren’t just for snapping incriminating photos that unwittingly end up on the internet anymore! Oh, wait—we guess this still applies: at 2:10 on Friday afternoon in front of 110 Spadina Avenue, this man was witnessed allegedly stealing the rear wheel of a bicycle belonging to Torontoist reader Dean Perlmutter. According to the witness, when the man was asked if he was stealing the wheel that he just removed, he allegedly threatened the witness and rode off. Perlmutter continues:

Undeterred, our nameless hero got on his own bike and rode after the [alleged] thief and pulled out his iPhone. He tried to grab some shots of the villain as he rode, even managing to get in front of him. He finally got off a shot of the man’s face.

The event was discovered when Perlmutter returned to his bike, enraged to find that the wheel was missing. A note was secured to the handlebars with the Good Samaritan’s phone number, and after calling the witness and meeting up, Perlmutter obtained the photos. A police report was filed today.
It’s pretty clear that the stolen wheel isn’t likely going to return to its owner, and we’re continually frustrated with the low priority the Toronto Police seem to put on petty bicycle theft, so props to the camera-wielding vigilante for thinking quickly. According to Perlmutter, the witness approached a nearby police cruiser within minutes of the alleged theft, but the officers were dismissive—however, he counters that the police were interested and extremely helpful when filing the report, probably because there was solid evidence.
Anyone with further information can contact 14 Division and cite incident #3539431.