Thousands of bikes seized during NYPD investigations are being held indefinitely at a Brooklyn warehouse that was damaged by Hurricane Sandy — and cops won’t even allow the family of a dead cyclist to have access for a lawsuit, court papers state.
Police sources insist the Kingsland Avenue facility in Greenpoint — which is condemned because of storm damage — is too dangerous for anyone to enter and retrieve the seized cycles.
The NYPD refuses to say when it will release the bikes, activists claim.
“We’ve gotten no timeline,” said lawyer Stephen Vaccaro, who represents bikers and pedestrians in crashes.
“A lot of these people are victims of crimes,” added organizer Keegan Stephan for the street safety group Right of Way.
“It’s a gross double standard,” he said, referring to the Brooklyn Navy Yard, which was also flooded bv Sandy, yet vehicles kept there were returned to owners.
The bike jail nightmare has been particularly hard on the family of Mathieu Lefevre, a 30-year-old killed in a hit-and-run crash with a truck while cycling in Williamsburg in October 2011.
The family needs the NYPD to release Lefevre’s bike from the warehouse so they can present it when they go to court in a suit against driver Leonardo Degianni and the owners of the truck.
In December, a Brooklyn Supreme Court judge issued a subpoena ordering the NYPD to release the bicycle in January. But the family has yet to see a single spoke of the late man’s bicycle.
“We are still waiting,” said mother Erika Lefevre, who lives in Canada. “It is our property. Why is the NYPD not releasing the bike? It could change the outcome.”
But the city is trying to quash the subpoena. A hearing will be held Thursday to determine whether the bike will be returned to the Lefevre family.
Police sources say the department received the subpoena, but can’t comply because the building was condemned after Sandy.
The Lefevre family also sued the NYPD in 2012 to have the department turn over records related to the crash.
The Kingsland Avenue building is owned by landlord Tony Agento, who did not respond to requests for comment.
Police said cyclists who believe their bike is in the warehouse should reach out to the city comptroller.
In the Lefevre crash, Degianni has not been criminally charged after telling investigators he didn’t realize he’d struck the cyclist.