Corbin Park woman seeks stolen tricycle

Becky Smith’s heart melted when her soldier husband, back from a tour of duty, bought her a vintage adult trike for Mother’s Day.

But a thief or thieves broke that heart by stealing the trike last week.

Smith’s husband, a soldier with the Army National Guard, noticed the blue trike catch his wife’s eye in a Monroe Street antique store. He went back and purchased it as a surprise for Mother’s Day shortly after returning from a year deployed overseas.

He redeploys early next year.

The decades-old Schwinn trike was chained up in the front yard of Smith’s Corbin Park neighborhood home. Over the past couple of years her children had routinely filled its basket with seasonal decorations – flowers for spring, pumpkins in the fall and wrapped packages at Christmas time.

“It meant a lot,” Smith said.

But Smith looked out into her yard Wednesday and discovered the tricycle was gone.

“I felt sick. You just feel violated,” she said.

At a loss for what to do, Smith turned to Craigslist.com.

She placed an ad on the online classified site seeking help.

“Someone stole my Mother’s Day gift out of our front yard near Corbin Park,” she wrote, asking for people to keep an eye out for it.

“I’ve already received a couple of e-mails from people. Some pointed me to another ad on Craigslist,” she said.

That ad featured a bike similar to Smith’s, but had been posted before her trike was stolen.

Still, Smith has been inspired by the outpouring of concern from people viewing her ad, and is holding out hope that she will get her bike back.

“I’ve had really positive people coming out of it – good Samaritans,” she said. “I’m feeling better.”