Vancouver woman steals her bike back via Craigslist from suspected thief

A Vancouver cyclist stands smiling next to her bike, triumphant, in the photo she posted this week that sums up her ordeal with a bike thief. She won this contest of tricks.

Kayla Smith's story has gone viral after the young cyclist said she sneakily recovered her own stolen bicycle by stealing it back.

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Smith's story, posted online first by her friend, has received more than 2,300 comments on Reddit.

In another Reddit post, a poster identifying herself as Smith wrote that her bike disappeared while she was visiting a friend on Wednesday night. She filed a police report, but then her friend saw the bike listed for sale on Craigslist, according to the post. She called the police to tell them, the authorities told her she might have to wait a day or more for help, according to the post.

"So I jump into action," she wrote.

Smith said she arranged to meet the seller in a McDonald's parking lot in Vancouver and when she arrived, she immediately recognized the bike's mismatched handle bar plugs and its stickers.

She decided swiftly and made a break for it on her bike, meeting her friend with a car in a nearby parking lot, Smith wrote.

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Then the man selling the bike ran away.

While Smith's plan worked for her, police warned it's a dangerous idea to chase after your stolen property without their help, according to CBC.