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Burglars Cooked Pizza in His Home, Stole Vintage Bike, Avondale Man Says

By Erin Meyer | March 17, 2014 8:43am
 The stolen bike, a 1982 Vitus 979 road bike, made of a bonded aluminum frame with anodized tubing, features a full Shimano 600 tri-color group, including headset, cranks and brakes. The wheels are H+son archtype anodized rims, laced to Suzue road hubs with anodized nipples to match the tri-color group and vintage Cinelli handlebars and stem.
The stolen bike, a 1982 Vitus 979 road bike, made of a bonded aluminum frame with anodized tubing, features a full Shimano 600 tri-color group, including headset, cranks and brakes. The wheels are H+son archtype anodized rims, laced to Suzue road hubs with anodized nipples to match the tri-color group and vintage Cinelli handlebars and stem.
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Adam Glenn

COOK COUNTY CRIMINAL COURTHOUSE — An Avondale man returned home last week to discover his $2,200 vintage bicycle had been stolen and that the culprits had helped themselves to a frozen pizza, baking it in his oven. 

Adam Glenn, 26, said he was devastated to find that the 1982 Vitus French road bicycle he's spent years assembling had been ripped off by burglars last week. And he was outraged to find that the burglars had brought their own beverages and red Solo cups and even made a pizza in his home.

"Classic pizza party," Glenn said Friday, after being reunited with his bicycle. "They took the pizza out of my freezer and cooked it in my oven. They brought their own 2-liter of Coke and some red Solo cups."

The condo, which Glenn recently purchased and plans to renovate, was uninhabited early last week when the burglary occurred, Glenn said. His bicycle and about $6,000 worth of tools were taken.

"The tools can be replaced, the bike cannot," he said.

But the bike turned up Thursday when Andre Scardina, 19, rolled it into Kozy's Cyclestore, 3255 N. Milwaukee Ave., offering to sell it or possibly trade it in for another, Cook County prosecutors said. 

Scardina — accused of theft for possessing the stolen cycle and not with burglarizing Glenn's home — allegedly wanted to have the toe clips removed and turn the Vitus into a fixed gear bike.

Kozy's mechanic Patrick McLarty, 35, immediately knew something was up.

"I tried to stall him," McLarty said. On the frame he found a sticker for the Bike Lane shop, located little more than 2 miles away, and called to see if anyone there knew of a missing 1982 Vitus road bike.

Glenn, co-owner of the Bike Lane, rushed over and identified his bike.

Scardina, of the 2900 block of North Springfield Street, was arrested and charged with felony theft.

According to a police report he claimed to have bought the bicycle from a man for $70.

A judge ordered him released during a brief bond hearing last week on his own recognizance.

Glenn said police are testing the Solo cups found at his burglarized home for evidence.