Wheelie for Water: Bike thief ruins charity's World Record attempt

EUGENE, Ore. - Chris Barnett has a skill - and a passion.

"I enjoy riding wheelies, and I enjoy helping people," he said, "and I don't know,  it just kind of fell into place one day."

Wheelie for Water was born.

Barnett wants to wheelie to raise $5,000 to build a clean water well in Africa.
         
He hoped going for a World Record would bring in donations.

"Riding on one wheel the whole time, no stops, one hour," he said.

The current record is around 10 1/2 miles.

But on Wednesday afternoon as he walked to his car, Barnett noticed something very important missing from his roof rack.

"The bike, gone, in what looks like one clean cut," he said. "Right away, I think it was probably a pretty quick in and out.

The bike - locked to the roof of his car - was gone, lifted from the roof in broad daylight from the parking lot of a friend's apartment building.

"It's not my personal property that I'm mad about," he said, "it's the people that need clean water that are really missing out."

Barnett said he'll find a new way to raise money for clean water.

And he'll re-think his security measures.
 
"I thought it might have been a little bit of a flimsy lock, but I don't know, I had just never heard of anyone stealing off the top of a car before," he said.

For now, Wheelies for Water will have to wait.

"I like to think that people are a little bit better than this," he said. "Guess not."

• Visit the Wheelie for Water website