ABQ Times

A business in Albuquerque, New Mexico, that specializes in bicycle sales and service is asking for the public’s help in retrieving a bicycle that was stolen from the apartment of a customer who was fatally shot in what Albuquerque police are investigating as a homicide.

The Bike Coop, located at 120 Yale Boulevard SE, made a plea on behalf of the late Joe Garcia of Albuquerque who was killed on June 13, the business posted on Instagram. The business is offering a cash reward for “credible information” leading to the bike’s recovery. It is asking the public to call 505-265-5170 with information.

“In Albuquerque, New Mexico, earlier this month, Joe Garcia picked up a custom bike for his daughter Isabel at The Bike Coop in town. Tragically, just two days later, Garcia was killed and the bike was stolen from his apartment,” The Bike Coop’s Instagram said. “Now, The Bike Coop is offering a reward for anyone with information that leads to the recovery of the bike for Isabel—her father’s last present for her.”

Garcia and his daughter, Isabel, picked up the custom bike the shop built for Isabel, and that she had helped paint, on June 11. Garcia saved for the bike for nearly a year, the Instagram said. Garcia first went to The Bike Coop in 2020 to buy his son a bicycle, KOB4 reported.

“From kind of the first time he came in, he was just a really genuine guy,” Amanda Batty, owner of The Bike Coop, told KOB4, noting that Garcia “became a regular.” “He came in once a week, but I don’t recall him ever spending money on himself.”

Garcia, who according to his obituary was 40, wanted to give his three children who survive him the same things he had as a kid.

“If you knew where Joe was when he was a kid, you would find his bike. That’s where he was at,” Garcia’s sister, Lisa Urban, told KOB4. “He got his little one into a Strider to start learning how to ride a bike. Then he built a bike with his daughter Isabel.”

Everything about Isabel’s bike “was hers,” Batty told KOB4.

“Like it was everything about it. I mean, and that’s kind of the most heartbreaking thing is they picked it up on Saturday, June 11, and Joe was killed on Monday, June 13,” Batty told KOB4.

Urban told KOB4 that it didn't stop with just the murder.

“There were things that were taken. I made a quilt for my brother, for my sister, for all of my mom’s grandchildren, and that was taken, a guitar, his clothes, some shoes, Isabel’s bike,” Urban told KOB4.

The family hopes the public will be on the lookout for Isabel's bicycle.

“It’s a really, really unique bike,” Batty told KOB4. “I mean, it was hand painted, it’s black and copper metallic, it has a number of really custom things about it. From, you know, the crankset and the chain ring up front, to the head tube that says The Bike Coop. If we can’t bring her dad back, the least we can do is try to get her the bike that they built together.”