Local bicycle thieves may be in for a rude awakening. That is, if they mess with teachers Alan Beamer and Glenn Mangold again.
On Sept. 25, Beamer was walking to his classroom from the middle- school staff room when he saw a Caucasian man, presumably in his mid-forties, with shaggy brown hair and a slight build slowly riding away on his own bike while dragging Beamer’s bike behind him.
“Hey, that’s my bike! What are you doing?” Beamer yelled.
The man responded, “Nothing personal, man,” returned the bicycle to Beamer and rode away.
Then Beamer turned around to see Mangold, who had stormed out of his room wielding a long, flat piece of wood.
Mangold said he heard yelling outside of his classroom.
“I heard the words, ‘steal’ and ‘bike’ and figured out what was going on,” he said.
So he grabbed the plank of wood (used as a track for toy cars in physics labs) and rushed out to the bike racks. But by that time the thief was gone.
Mangold had no comment as to what he had planned for the criminal.
Beamer now uses a stronger bike lock. But it may be unnecessary, as it’s doubtful that any thief will dare to face Beamer and Mangold once again.
