A little snowball that got big The Icelandic vigilante helping to break the cycle of bike theft

It all started in 2019, when Bjartmar Leósson started to see a rise in bike theft in Reykjavík.

- Miranda Bryant

 

Rather than accepting that once a bicycle was stolen it had disappeared forever, the bus driver and self-confessed “bike nerd” decided to start tracking them down and returning them to their rightful owners.

Four years and, he estimates, hundreds of salvaged bikes later, the 44-year-old has developed a reputation in the Icelandic capital among cyclists and potential bike thieves. Known as the Reykjavík “bike whisperer”, people across his home city turn to him for help to find their missing bicycles, tools and even cars. Often, he says, bike thieves hand over bikes without being asked and some former bike thieves have started to help him.

It’s still free to read – this is not a paywall

We’re committed to keeping our quality reporting open. By registering and providing us with insight into your preferences, you’re helping us to engage with you more deeply, and that allows us to keep our journalism free for all. You’ll always be able to control your own .

“It’s like a little snowball that got really big really fast,” says Leósson, whose other nicknames include “the bike cop”, “bike priest” and “bicycle Jesus”.

Now when somebody loses their bike it can take as little as 48 hours to track it down on his Facebook page, Hjóladót ofl. tapað fundið eða stolið (Bicycle stuff etc lost, found or stolen), updated every few hours with missing and found items and which has more than 14,500 members.