News
Rider's Throat Apparently Sliced by Barbed Wire Across Trail
Stelianos Psaroudakis was just out for an evening ride on the Bragg Creek trail network west of Calgary on Wednesday, July 5th when he experienced a mountain biker's nightmare; he struck a line of barbed wire that was strung across the trail at neck height. Psaroudakis was thrown from his bike with his small dog in his backpack, landing heavily on his back in a rock garden. His dog was thrown clear and was not seriously injured.
Stelianos Psaroudakis after being stitched up.
The rider wasn't so lucky. The long laceration on his neck, from one side to the other, was half a centimetre deep in places. Despite his injuries Psaroudakis feels fortunate; "When I blacked out, I thought my head was dangling on the other side of my body," he said. "I thought I was dead." It could have ended much differently: "If it was like, an inch higher, it would have taken my head off."
Adding insult to injury, the rider's bike was stolen from the scene.
The injured rider was riding with a friend who was following 15 metres behind. The two proceeded to the hospital by car and left Psaroudakis' bike at the scene. The next day the bike was nowhere to be found.
Local RCMP are investigating and asking anyone with information to call the Cochrane Alberta detachment at 403-932-2211 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
Comments
Mungbeanz
6 years, 9 months ago
Bike photo is from a two year old pinkbike buy/sell ad:
https://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/1805902
Definitely did not pay $8000 for the bike.
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COEXIST
6 years, 9 months ago
Hey Cam can you at least change the title of the article to "Known scumbag attempts to scam people with bogus story" or maybe "tiny dog's face scratched in alleged crash"
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Cam McRae
6 years, 9 months ago
We haven't reported anything that hasn't been discussed in the mainstream so there's little value to pulling this story. It may even increase the heat some. I have several follow up lines in the water so we'll have to see what I land. Hopefully some clarity will emerge through this hazy tale.
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Skyler
6 years, 9 months ago
That the article was posted by CBC in the first place is a huge failure of the media to do their most important job : fact checking. No one even bothered to contact the man's reported riding partner or even ask for his name? Nothing adds up. CBC needs to slow down and remember how journalism works...
That it was subsequently reported here and on Pinkbike is unfortunate, but is less symbolic of the fragile state of news media in this hyper-speed, post-truth, online world. Kinda a canary in the coal mine...
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Jason Wannamaker
6 years, 9 months ago
We've had people come forward saying he has scammed them for auto work. They have been in contact with the Cochrane RCMP.
He also had a GoFundMe to raise money for the families displaced via the Fort McMurray Wildfires which he tried to promote through newspapers facebook pages.
He also has a classified ad asking for money, toys, and furniture to give to children in unfortunate circumstances.
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
Turn out this guy has a bunch of fraud allegations.
CBC terrible reporting. Wanted to email the journalist but the link is dead.
Now he is donating the money to keeping the trails safe.
hoser
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Mungbeanz
6 years, 9 months ago
http://globalnews.ca/news/3593116/gofundme-puts-funds-on-hold-after-alberta-cyclist-who-filed-police-report-removes-campaign/
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Jitensha Kun
6 years, 9 months ago
Guy cannot catch a break.
He lost his puppy not that long ago.
Overall, it is a wee bit fishy.
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
I thought the dog was in his backpack? How many dogs does he have?
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COEXIST
6 years, 9 months ago
This has been deemed a fake. None of his story adds up.
$8000 bike? Nope
No one else out on that trail? Nope
Walking out from that trail with a deep cut? Nope
Dude has several other fake go fund me pages? Yup
https://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=246&;pagenum=1334
Take down this story Cam.
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Cooper Quinn
6 years, 9 months ago
Link no work-y
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rasheed
6 years, 9 months ago
Try this.
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rasheed
6 years, 9 months ago
Nevermind. I guess the Pinkbike forum doesn't like links to specific pages.
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Gade
6 years, 9 months ago
Agreed - I would at least take it down pending further details. There is a very real chance that this is a scam.
1) Injured rider has a history of other Gofundme pages and similar sites to gain him money.
2) Injured rider discarded the barbed wire, and it could not be recovered.
3) There are no pictures of the barbed wire on scene.
4) Rider went to media, did not approach police (he was subsequently contacted by police).
5) Rider claims his dog was in his backpack for his ride and was thrown from backpack in crash (who rides with a dog in their backpack?)
6) Rider claims incident happened on a VERY popular trail (Merlin View) between 8 and 9 PM. Strava data indicates multiple parties were on the trail at this time, and no reports from other parties about meeting this rider. (This trail is also a fairly short loop, ~ 45 minutes for most riders).
7) Rider is asking for considerably more than replacement cost for bike on Gofundme.
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
Ya my sister rode the same trail that day, she says this guy most likely is a scammer.
Sure is healing fast? Looks lie a hockey stick rash to me.
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Cam McRae
6 years, 9 months ago
Several fake gofundme pages or one other? I only saw the one about his dog. I'm continuing to try and track down info on this to gain some clarity.
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Brian Debenham
6 years, 9 months ago
He set up a gofundme to try to raise money to give to Fort Mac fire victims, he was the only person to donate to his own campaign. He admitted to this at the bottom of his youtube vid showing his lacerated neck.
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Cam McRae
6 years, 9 months ago
At this point there are indeed many questions. Looking forward to some more information being available. That $8000 specialized seemed fishy. And there is nothing about mountain biking on his FB page. https://www.facebook.com/stelly306
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Jitensha Kun
6 years, 9 months ago
Did you see the Strava ride logs for the same time period or the update from the Greater Bragg Creek Trail Society? Specifically, they couldn't find any barbed wire.
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pedalhound
6 years, 9 months ago
They were able to clean up the barbed wire, but not take his bike out? Not...fishy...at...all...
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dubprof
6 years, 9 months ago
the second coming of Gord.
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Cameron Curtis
6 years, 9 months ago
If the story is a fake then I think posting it is still a good thing as it could theoretically lead to charges against this individual. I have no legal knowledge but would imagine that fraudulent gofundme pages would be illegal. Wonder what the mark on his neck is actually from then. Amazing the cool heads rather than vitriol on here. Well done nsmb community.
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Jitensha Kun
6 years, 9 months ago
The Calgary Rider's thread over on Pinkbike and a Calgary Riders' Group on Facebook are e-sleuthing the heck out of
this. https://www.pinkbike.com/forum/listcomments/?threadid=246&pagenum=1336#commentid6492530 (click to the last few pages of the thread)
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
Looks like he is hurt but don't buy it. If it was " Barbed wire" would have resulted in a major injury, not a scratch. Barbed wire barbs are 6 to 8 inches apart, hitting this would be major. looks like a tree branch and a scam.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pvHKMFN88&;feature=share
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rasheed
6 years, 9 months ago
Kind of funny how he's posted a comment to his own video (the only comment posted), then "loved" his own comment.
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
Worst grammar ever. This guy is too dumb, story has tons of holes.
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rasheed
6 years, 9 months ago
He's removed his YouTube video. He's also deleted all the related posts to this "incident" off his Facebook page.
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cbennett
6 years, 9 months ago
Looks like he's closed his go fund me page. I could no longer see the comments or description.
https://www.gofundme.com/bike-stolen-after-almost-dying
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Bux Bux
6 years, 9 months ago
Probably Gofundme closed it. People reporting it a scam
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Jason Wannamaker
6 years, 9 months ago
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/stelianos-psaroudakis-west-bragg-creek-gofundme-frozen-1.4201921
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Janny Free
6 years, 9 months ago
I saw this link shared on a friends page and had to comment. This guy is a scammer. Not all that long ago he was all over the calgary pet FB pages with a gofundme page asking for help to get his dog out of the pound. He was claiming it was going to cost over $600 to get her out. I questioned that amount, and he claimed it was because his dog was not fixed and it would cost more.
I've had dogs my whole life, and I've been to the pound a few times myself. With the running at large fee and impound fees, to get a dog out is only about $150. If the dog was not licensed, that's another $100, and a license for an unfixed dog is only a bit more than it is for a fixed dog. Even if he got all those fines, no way would it be $600 to get his dog out.
This guy preys on people. I see now gofundme has frozen his account. Hopefully police will get involved and he'll be facing charges. I feel sorry for his kid, and ashamed for his wife (if even that part is true!)
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