I used to joke about finding money in an old bike tank, because I remembered a story a neighbor, Mr Shephard, told who fixed our bikes when we were kids.
We wanted the tanks taken off our bikes because they weren't cool anymore. I had a 24" Evans, and my friend had a Hornet, he was a big 12 year old.
He said we might be the lucky ones with the ten grand in the bike tank. That peaked our interest, so we asked about it.
So, the long story began. We wished we hadn't said anything, it was impolite to just up and leave unless it was an emergency, so we listened to the whole thing. It took about an hour, and we just wanted to ride our bikes and get out of there.
In Chicago in the late 50's, a used bike shop had about 500 bikes. One of the shop owners had ties to organized crime and used the shop as his cover. He was skimming cash off the top of some ill gotten gains and needed to hide the dough. He had 5 rolls of fiftys, 10 grand total that he needed to hide, and do it quickly. He unbolted a tank from one of the bikes and shoved all 5 rolls in there and bolted it back up. The bosses caught up with him and he was never heard from again. When they went through his belongings trying to find out what happened, they found a note which said the money was put in a tank of a bicycle at the shop.
But, a couple days earlier, the shop had sold off about 150 of their bikes, shipped to different shops in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Since they were used bikes, serial numbers weren't kept track of, just the number of bikes to each shop. They didn't even list the brand names. None of the bikes at the shop had any money stashed.
So, I thought he made the story up, but my research had come up with a few mentions of mob money hidden in a bicycle that was lost back in the 50's.
So, check those old tanks!
We wanted the tanks taken off our bikes because they weren't cool anymore. I had a 24" Evans, and my friend had a Hornet, he was a big 12 year old.
He said we might be the lucky ones with the ten grand in the bike tank. That peaked our interest, so we asked about it.
So, the long story began. We wished we hadn't said anything, it was impolite to just up and leave unless it was an emergency, so we listened to the whole thing. It took about an hour, and we just wanted to ride our bikes and get out of there.
In Chicago in the late 50's, a used bike shop had about 500 bikes. One of the shop owners had ties to organized crime and used the shop as his cover. He was skimming cash off the top of some ill gotten gains and needed to hide the dough. He had 5 rolls of fiftys, 10 grand total that he needed to hide, and do it quickly. He unbolted a tank from one of the bikes and shoved all 5 rolls in there and bolted it back up. The bosses caught up with him and he was never heard from again. When they went through his belongings trying to find out what happened, they found a note which said the money was put in a tank of a bicycle at the shop.
But, a couple days earlier, the shop had sold off about 150 of their bikes, shipped to different shops in Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, and Ohio. Since they were used bikes, serial numbers weren't kept track of, just the number of bikes to each shop. They didn't even list the brand names. None of the bikes at the shop had any money stashed.
So, I thought he made the story up, but my research had come up with a few mentions of mob money hidden in a bicycle that was lost back in the 50's.
So, check those old tanks!
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