Sixth Judicial District Attorney Christian Champagne returned home July 8 from an out-of-town trip to find that the freezer in his garage had broken, causing all the meat to rot and his garage to reek.
So, Champagne cleaned the freezer and left his garage door open overnight to air out. During the night, someone stole his new 2-week-old multi-thousand dollar mountain bike.
“It was the first real, true, brand-new mountain bike that I’ve ever had,” Champagne said. “I was really excited, because I love to go riding.”
Champagne reported the lime green bike stolen to the Durango Police Department on July 9. But he was gloomy about the prospect of it being found.
“It was a bad weekend,” he said.
Durango Police Cmdr. Ray Shupe said a few days later, Kevin Hoy, an off-duty police officer, spotted a man known to law enforcement riding an expensive, lime green mountain bike. It piqued his curiosity.
“And so at the time he just thought it was odd, because it was a really nice mountain bike,” Shupe said. “He didn’t know about the stolen bike until he came back on duty a couple days later.”
Durango police officers were put on notice that Champagne’s stolen bike could be in the possession of Joshua Gallegos, a 21-year-old from Ignacio.
Hoy returned to duty a couple of days later. He went about his daily work, trying to locate and apprehend a woman who was wanted on a warrant for a failure to appear in court.
Shupe said the woman, 33-year-old Raechel Lee Ybarra, of Durango, was suspected to be staying at the Royal Motel, 2068 Main Ave. When officers arrived to take Ybarra into custody, Gallegos also was inside the room.
Shupe said officers questioned Gallegos about the bike, but he denied knowing what they were talking about.
Officers searched the perimeter of the hotel, Shupe said, and found the bike locked in the back of the building. It had been spray-painted black and covered in superhero stickers. They also found Gallegos had the key for the bike lock. Police matched Champagne’s serial number on the bike.
They arrested and charged Gallegos on suspicion of theft and criminal mischief. Each charge has a $5,000 bond. Champagne said the case has been transferred to the 22nd Judicial District in Cortez because he was the victim of the crime.
Although police found Champagne’s bike, he won’t be riding it soon.
“It’s in evidence right now,” Champagne said. “So I don’t even have the bike.”
Initially, Champagne began researching ways to remove the black spray paint. Instead, he filed an insurance claim on the stolen bike and hopes to receive a replacement.
Shupe said the police department regularly receives stolen bike reports. He did not have statistics on how many stolen bikes are recovered, but he said it’s not “super rare” that a bike will be found.
“We push a lot of stuff on our Facebook page about locking bikes, closing garages and registering with our bike licensing program,” Shupe said. “But we’re still dealing with stolen bikes all the time. It’s chronic for us.”
jromeo@durangoherald.com