By By Thomas Tingle
Record Managing Editor
If you own a bicycle in Madison and if for some reason that bicycle gets stolen or lost, if the bicycle is registered with the department, you may be able to recover it quicker.
The Madison Police Department has a lot of unidentified bicycles that they would like to give back to its owners and will offer residents the opportunity to register a bicycle free of charge from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Oct. 26, in front of City Hall on Hughes Road.
Officer Wayne Kamus said the department has a lot of abandoned bicycles that can't be matched to an owner because the bicycle hasn't been registered and there is no way of knowing whom it belongs to.
"In conjunction with our Cadet Corp. Program here at the department, Cadets Andrea Giuliano and Elizabeth Fursdon will register your bicycle free of charge and will also take reports by residents who have lost a bicycle," Kamus said. "Once the bicycle is registered, the information will be put into a database. Then, if for some reason we obtain the bicycle for whatever reason, if it is registered, we can match the bicycle to its owner."
Kamus said if a resident has lost his bicycle, they can come to the free registration day, fill out a report, and that information will be used to see if it matches one of the bicycles the department has in its collection."
"We have only so much space to store these bicycles and I know there are a lot of people out there who would like to get their bicycle back if they only knew to come here. We may or may not have it, but if you do lose your bicycle, come to the department and fill out a report."
Kamus said he would like to conduct the free registration event on a regular basis.