By Tim Binnall
Authorities in England have arrested a man who amassed a staggering hoard of what they contend to be stolen bicycles which he stashed in a backyard pile that was so enormous that it could actually be seen from space! The bizarre case reportedly came to light earlier this month when police in the community of Littlemore visited the unnamed resident's home in what appears to have been the culmination of a lengthy feud between the man and his neighbors. "I started reporting his festering collection of bikes four years ago," declared Colleen Butler, "the amount of bikes was just ridiculous. There must have been at least 500 of them."
The problem grew to such epic proportions, she claims, that rats began living in the bicycle pile, but local authorities refused to help her because they were skeptical of such an assertion. As for the owner of the home, Butler laments that the man assured her that the bikes were "going to be sent to Africa for needy kids," but the alleged act of charity never came to pass. "I've had conversations with him but everything he tells you doesn't come true," she said of her bicycle-hoarding neighbor, "he lives in cloud-cuckoo land."
Over time, the maddening mound continued to grow alongside the misgivings of neighbors who lament that the pile is an eyesore that is hurting the value of their property. "Who is going to want to buy my house with all of that next door," Butler wondered. While the question of why exactly the man keeps collecting bikes remains something of a mystery, how he obtains them is almost equally inexplicable. According to his irritated neighbor, "bikes are coming in by van loads and people bring them here most nights and during the daytime as well."
The very strange situation came to a head last week when, for reasons unexplained, police in Littlemore finally decided to investigate the man's hoard and came to the determination that some of the hundreds of bikes on the property were stolen, which led to cops arresting the homeowner for possession of pilfered goods. The staggering scale of the man's collection was revealed when someone looked up the property on Google Earth and, amazingly, one can see that his entire backyard has been transformed into a veritable sea of bicycles. As of now, it remains to be seen what will become of both the man and his peculiar collection, but neighbors understandably hope that its the beginning of the end of the bike imbroglio.