How a R170‚000 bicycle was lost and found

A Pietermaritzburg mother's search for her teenage son's R170‚000 bicycle took her on an 11-hour drive to and from Johannesburg - only to find it via a musical band's Facebook page.

"What are the odds?" Lynne Jackson said on Wednesday, three days after the bizarre events unfolded.

Her 18-year-old son's Santa Cruz Downhilling bike - which had arrived from the United Kingdom just two days before he participated in the SA Downhill Championships in Hartbeespoort - fell off a bicycle rack during the trip back home on Sunday.

"He had doubled checked it at the Petroport outside Johannesburg and it was all fine. Hours later‚ the driver realised at Tugela Toll that the bike was no longer on the rack‚" Jackson said.

Her son was "like a zombie."

"My son‚ Dylan‚ was utterly shattered. He sent a message to me because he was too distraught to talk.

"That bike was bought from a professional cyclist in the UK. I had not had a chance to insure it and I knew that we just would have not been able to get that same bike even if it was insured‚" Jackson said.

When her son arrived in Pietermaritzburg at midnight‚ Jackson got into the car and the pair drove to Johannesburg.

But their search proved fruitless.

Jackson then decided to go the social media route‚ and posted the details of the bike and offered a R10‚000 reward.

"A friend's sister started looking through pages on Facebook and found a group called Lost & Found. Someone had posted that a bike had been found." According to the post by police officer Willy Skobane‚ the bike had been found on the N3 on Sunday.

The group that he posted on was actually the official fan page of Johannesburg band Lost&Found.

Jackson plans to travel to Johannesburg on Thursday to meet Skobane and pick up the bike.

"I still can't believe that we found it."

Skobane wasn't available for comment.

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