Desperate Student Offers $200 In Effort To Find Lost Citi Bike

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A desperate Swiss music student is offering a $200 reward to anybody who can help him find a Citi Bike that went missing after he failed to dock it properly. If it doesn't turn up, Florian White said he's preparing to sell him trombones to pay a $1,200 fine.

White, 26, has been posting notices around Bed-Stuy hoping somebody has seen the vehicle somewhere in the neighborhood.

“It’s an unlucky story,” said White. “I thought I docked it.”

White tried to park his Citi Bike at the station on Marcus Garvey Boulevard, near Macon Street, around 8:40 p.m. on Sept. 4 when a man approached him and began quizzing him aggressively about how Citi Bike worked.

“I was kind of irritated and confused and wanted to get away as quickly as possible,” White said.

The Swiss trombone player slid the bike into the station — without waiting to hear the beep and see the flashing green light that means it's locked in place — and rushed off to a jazz guitar concert at nearby Bar Lunatico. The usual text message confirming the bike had been returned was never received and Citi Bike records show it wasn't returned, he said.

Citi Bike policy dictates that riders will be held responsible for lost bikes, even those that are stolen, so White is expecting a $1,200 charge to appear on his credit card.

“I'm in a situation where everything is unclear financially,” he said. “ I have two instruments I will probably sell.”

White didn't report the stolen bike to police because he hoped a good Samaritan would simply return it, he said.

Instead, White is offering the $200 reward to anyone with information about the whereabouts of Citi Bike 22153 – the registration number that Citi Bike records show belongs to the lost vehicle and which is stamped on its frame – and asks to be contacted at FoundYourCitiBike@hotmail.com.

“Maybe this is a chance,” he said. “There’s not much more I can do.”

A Citi Bike spokesperson said, in response to Patch's request for comment, "Individual bikes are ridden upwards of thirty times per day, so it's important to ensure that every rider returns every bike to the system at the end of a ride."

Photos by Lauren Ramsby and Kathleen Culliton