READER REPORT: Neighbor stops apparent attempt to remove Fauntleroy ‘ghost bike’

| Fauntleroy | West Seattle news

(WSB photo, June 26)

One week after that gathering in memory of Maridee Bonadea, the 76-year-old bicyclist killed on SW Wildwood southeast of the Fauntleroy ferry dock, a nearby resident says she caught someone apparently trying to remove the roadside “ghost bike” memorial. Emailed by Kristi:

We live near the spot where a cyclist was recently run over and killed on SW Wildwood. We just witnessed a man in a truck cutting the chain off of the ghost bike placed in memory of Maridee Bonadea. When we confronted him to ask what he was doing, he nervously mumbled something about removing the chain from public infrastructure. When we asked if he was there as part of that infrastructure he said he was “the neighborhood.” We’ve lived a half block away for 15 years and have no idea who this was or why he was speaking on behalf of “the neighborhood.” He left in a hurry without taking the bike.

Kristi stayed with the bike until her husband returned with a new lock and chain, which are now in place. The man who took the original ones was in a white Ford Explorer, she reports.

Blbl July 3, 2026 (5:45 pm)

Thank you, Kristi, for having the courage to confront him.

Gande Harg July 3, 2026 (7:18 pm)

The flipping audacity! Than you for stopping the neighborhood Chad.

Jab July 3, 2026 (7:50 pm)

Taking a goodwill bike in his SUV doesn’t sound like a crime motivated by profit – sounds like someone objected to the memorial. Disgusting disrespect of the dead.

Kathleen July 4, 2026 (7:12 am)

Thank you ❤️

Jort July 6, 2026 (1:57 pm)

I read this last week and was so disappointed by it that I refrained from commenting. But I want to say, as kindly as I can: when cyclists say that car drivers have deeply-rooted psychological triggers against the existence of cycling – this is what we mean. While none of us can say for certain if this was done simply because the person objected to the presence of a memorial – it certainly seems likely to any of us who’ve ever ridden a bike (or read a comments section) and dealt with the irrational vitriol car drivers express to cyclists simply for existing.

NoMad Sci Guy July 6, 2026 (8:32 pm)

Reply

I sadly more or less ended two different 27+ year old friendships (they’re a couple. Separate very old friends of mine before I introduced them 10 years ago and got together) over this sort of deeply rooted trigger. They seem to relish in making fun of cyclists trying to ‘make themselves and pedestrians safe’ by mocking them incessantly. Led to a sequence of events that more or less ended the friendship(s). I really don’t get people on this. The attitude of “I don’t participate, so (bad word) those cyclists that do”. I had another very anti cyclist friend who went on his first e-scooter ride and suddenly he seemed to care how cars behaved.