BOULDER, Colo. -- The Twitter community in Boulder is being credited with helping a woman get her stolen bike back.Elaine Ellis said her bike was stolen on Saturday. The bike lock had been drilled into a brick, but the thief took the bike and the lock and rode off.But as he pedaled away, a neighbor got a photo of the thief Ellis said she posted the photo on Twitter and Facebook at 10:45 a.m. Monday."From there, #Boulder on Twitter absolutely blew it up," Ellis said on her blog. "Boulder is a community that watches your back for you and is extremely helpful. Within hours, I had 138 people tweet about the thieves, 24 people share it on Facebook and nearly 900 views on my blog post."Twitter users told Ellis they had seen her bike and thief on the bike path, at a liquor store, under a bridge. By 4 p.m., Ellis and her co-workers used the tips to find the suspect, and soon after, she had her bike back."It was great," said Dan Tisser, who works with Ellis. He said he was a little skeptical at first, but excited to be a part of finding the bike.Ellis said Dan Pierson spotted the man on her bike after seeing her tweet and called police. Pierson tweeted out, "Found your bike, NEED BACKUP."Ellis, Tisser, and several other of her co-workers ran to the LiquorMart, where the suspect was spotted and followed him until police arrived."It was just a bike," said Ellis. "We didn't want anyone getting hurt over it."Boulder police arrested David Oldham for the theft.Ellis said in the three days the man had her bike, he had upgraded it to include a bell and cup holder. She said if you are missing either of those items from your bike, she'll gladly return them.Read Ellis' blog about how she got her bike back and the Twitter folks who helped her.
