Encampment bike builder takes issue with police ‘chop shop’ description

A day after police searched a riverbank encampment, seized dozens of suspected stolen bicycles and arrested three people, Dano fiddled with bike parts outside of his makeshift home Thursday.

The 51-year-old, who declined to provide his last name, had most of the parts for the bike he was putting together, but was trying to determine which one of the two seats he’d found was the best fit.

He’d already painted the bike, inspired, he said, by surrealist artists.

“I want to give her a nice seat,” he said.

He said while he doesn’t doubt bike thefts are happening at the encampment near Fort Douglas Park along Waterfront Drive, he objects to the term “chop shop” — the descriptor police have given to the wooden structure that housed the bike components seized by police.

“If there was somebody who was doing some negative crap, he probably wasn’t from here,” he said.

Dano was happy to discuss this particular bike, which has been a long time in the making, assembled with parts scrounged from dumpsters and gifts from loved ones, he said.

None of the components were stolen, he said.

He has been at the encampment off-and-on after losing a child several years ago. He and others there are just trying their best in a tough situation, he said.

“We are family. There’s no criminals down here, you know?” he said.

“Sometimes people are a product of their environment, unfortunately.”

“We are family. There’s no criminals down here, you know?”–Dano

Winnipeg Police Service officers executed a search warrant in the first 100 block of Gomez Street near Waterfront Drive Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. They turned up multiple stolen items, including 50 bicycle frames, 77 bike tires, 53 bike tire rims, a gas generator, lawnmower, pressure washer and wheelchair.

Police said the temporary structure, made of wood, was constructed and used as a workshop.

Three men were arrested Wednesday but it was later determined one was not involved and he was released.

Thursday, police said two men, ages 39 and 57, have each been charged with possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000. Both were released on undertakings.

WPS Insp. Helen Peters said Wednesday it was the first time in memory that police had obtained a search warrant for an encampment structure.

End Homelessness Winnipeg released a report this week that tallied 2,469 people living on the street during a 24-hour census period last November.

It was the highest number since the organization began counting in 2015.

At a news conference outlining the report Thursday, Housing Minister Bernadette Smith said executing the search warrant aligned with the province’s Your Way Home strategy, aimed at ending chronic homelessness by 2031, “in terms of making sure that people are safe and secure.”

“We want to ensure that there’s enforcement happening on any illegal activity, whether it’s in encampments (or elsewhere in the) community,” she said.

“Encampments, that’s their home, just like it would be your home. So we’re working in collaboration with the city, with the police, with front-line organizations… we want to make sure there’s no exploitation or illegal activity happening.”

Mayor Scott Gillingham also voiced support for the police action.

“I trust them to take whatever legal steps they determine are necessary to support their investigations,” he said.

“I trust them (the police) to take whatever legal steps they determine are necessary to support their investigations.”–Mayor Scott Gillingham

Out of the people counted by End Homelessness Winnipeg, just under eight per cent were in an encampment.

Ash Burkowski has been homeless in Winnipeg twice, once as a teenager and once in her 30s. Now 42, she has a home, and provided support to End Homelessness Winnipeg in compiling the report.

She has seen both sides — since finding a stable home, she has been the victim of random theft — but said the city is failing its responsibility to people who are just trying to survive.

“As an individual who doesn’t have a lot of money or the ability to replace these things, I understand the irritation of homeowners and people who are getting their things stolen,” she said.

“But at the same time, we’ve created these conditions as a society; this is our responsibility to make sure that everybody has a house and is safe, has access to nutritious food, has access to adequate income. When we provide those things… then the instances of (thefts) are going to go way down.”

Police were unable Thursday to provide a number of theft arrests made at encampments. There were 1,443 bicycle thefts in Winnipeg in 2024 and 742 from January to July of this year, the most recent data available.

malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca

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Malak Abas
Reporter

Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.

Every piece of reporting Malak produces is reviewed by an editing team before it is posted online or published in print — part of the Free Press‘s tradition, since 1872, of producing reliable independent journalism. Read more about Free Press’s history and mandate, and learn how our newsroom operates.