On Friday, Nov. 3, former San Diego resident Rob Greenfield had his beloved bamboo bike, which he had ridden across the country, stolen in front of the Catamaran Hotel in Mission Bay. But instead of letting the loss of his bike ruin his day, he decided to turn the situation into something positive. Greenfield wanted to turn his own misfortune into someone else’s fortune, so he started the GoFundMe.com campaign “Bikes for Kids” to raise money for kids who have had their bikes stolen. “I am in a situation where I can go and buy a new bike, but there are a lot of kids out there who live in low-income scenarios and if they get their bike stolen they can’t get another one,” said Greenfield.
Greenfield shared a video on Facebook of himself, asking people to help him turn the bad deed of his bike being stolen, into dozens of good deeds. He started raising money to buy bikes for kids. “I am a strong believer in the idea that hate cannot drive out hate and darkness cannot drive out darkness. Bad deeds cannot drive out bad deeds. Only good deeds can do that,” said Greenfield. Through “Bikes for Kids,” Greenfield already raised enough money to buy bikes for 10 kids. He also managed to find his bike’s thief, and get his bamboo bike back. Greenfield’s bike was stolen by a man named Guitar Johnny, who stole it to get his next fix. Greenfield decided not to report him to the police, but instead they made a deal that Guitar Johnny is going to do something good for humanity, and the former bike thief committed to helping to fix bikes for people in need to make up for his bad deed.
“I don’t think that him going to jail is going to solve the problem. There are more people in jail in the United States than any other country in the world, and I think that we have seen that putting people in jail and punishing them that way doesn’t work. I think we need compassion,” said Greenfield. You can still donate to “Bikes for Kids” and all extra funds will be used to do good deeds for the rest of 2017 and to buy bikes for people who’ve had their bike stolen. For more information,, visit www.gofundme.com/bamboobike.