Calgary Paralympian searching for stolen handbike after vehicle break-in
Posted Sep 11, 2025 2:41 pm.
Last Updated Sep 11, 2025 2:44 pm.
A Calgary Paralympian is appealing to the public for help after her specialized handbike was stolen from her locked vehicle earlier this week.
Kara Douville, who recently returned from competing at the 2025 UCI Para-Cycling Road World Championships in Belgium, discovered the theft on Monday morning while heading to work.
“The driver’s side window was smashed in, everything in my car was just scattered everywhere, and my handbike was gone,” Douville told CityNews.
The theft occurred in a parkade at her southwest Calgary home. Douville, who is also a teacher, says the handbike is custom-built and easily identifiable.
“It’s fully carbon fiber. The whole thing is carbon. The bucket and the fork. It says ‘Carbon Master’ on the bucket and the fork in green and white writing,” she explained.
Douville’s journey as a para-athlete began nearly 13 years ago after a life-altering fall while mountain climbing at Grassi Lakes near Canmore. The accident left her paralyzed from the waist down.
“I took a couple of years off after that just to try to rehab and refigure out life,” she said. “It takes a little bit of time to adjust and then went back to school for teaching and kind of got hooked up eventually with the sport side, since that was always my background.”
She has filed a report with Calgary Police and is urging anyone who may come across the handbike or sees it being sold to report it.
“If somebody tries to sell it, it should stand out because it’s fit for me and there’s not a lot of people who will even fit in the bike,” Douville said.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Calgary Police or Crime Stoppers.
