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‘I think it’s awesome!’ Samuel gets a new bike

Posted at 7:01 AM, Apr 26, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-26 07:01:10-04

HENRICO COUNTY, Va. -- Samuel, the nine-year-old boy who was tricked and had his bike stolen on Brown's Island Sunday, is once again riding around his Henrico neighborhood.

After reporting on the bike theft, Jake Burns presented Samuel with a brand new bike as part of CBS 6 Gives. Look at the joy on Samuel's face!

To those of you who offered to buy Samuel a new bike, thank you! Perhaps take that money and do something kind for someone else in your life.

On Sunday, Samuel was riding his bike on Brown's Island in Richmond when a group of middle to high school-age kids stopped to talk to him about racing.

It was when the talk turned from racing bikes to racing up the steps at Brown's Island, that his mom said Samuel got off his brand new bike.

"While three boys distracted him, another ran up behind him and grabbed the bike and took off on it," Samuel's mother Jessenia Pagan said. "My little boy is so devastated. I'm trying to get the word out in the hopes of having it found or returned."

The $140-bicycle was given to Samuel last week by family members.

"He had recently learned how to ride on a bike that was too small for him, and his aunt and uncle decided to buy him one that was the right size so he wouldn't feel left out with the neighborhood kids," Pagan said.

The bicycle is not all Pagan said her son lost Sunday. She said he lost a sense of security and her family may have lost a springtime tradition.

"We go to Brown's Island almost every weekend when the weather is warm because he really likes it. Now he says he doesn't want to go back because he's scared," she said. "Naturally, I want the bike back, but I would much rather appreciate it if someone restored my son's faith in humanity."

CBS 6 and Union Bank and Trust partnered to get Samuel a new bike, just like the one that stolen, as a part of "CBS 6 Gives."

Within minutes of delivering his new bicycle, Samuel was once again zipping around his neighborhood next to his friends.