ONLY IN FREMONT - Once known as the "Center of the Universe", Now known as Center of Crime!

Part 1 - SEATTLE - Sept. 28, 2006

Rune Monstad is on a grand adventure. Nine months ago he started pedaling his bicycle in Bolivia. The Norwegian native has since ridden that bike along the South American Pacific coast through Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Central America, Mexico and the United States.

"And I find out that I love it. Never is one day the same. It's different every day," he told us.

From a collection of photographs posted on his web site it is obvious he's made friends every mile. In one photo he's seated on a couch next to four lovely young ladies in Peru. In another he's mugging for the camera with a group of heavily armed border guards at a Colombian checkpoint.

There have been difficult times too. Sleeping one night in his tent in a Colombian city park, three robbers tried to get inside.

"I jumped out and I screamed like Rambo!" Yes even in Norway they know who Sylvester Stallone is. "Then I was really ready for fight."

The robbers ran away from his Rambo impression. And ever since his biking adventure has been mostly carefree. He traveled along the Texas Gulf coast, biked to Mt. Rushmore, through Yellowstone National Park, and all the way to Seattle.

"It's so friendly. I love United States. I was surprised. I'd heard so much bad things."

He made it 16,000 miles without too many bad things... until he got here.

"Oh you will love Seattle," recounting what all his friends told him. "It's a big city, people so friendly and it's a beautiful city. And I been here 30 minutes and I get robbed."

His first stop in Seattle was the Marketime grocery store in Fremont. He went in looking for a phone and left his bike outside. A thief zipped open one of his bike bags and took his wallet. It held his passport, his credit card, and $500: every cent he had.

"I don't get robbed in South America, Central America. But when I came to Seattle it's the first time. I was very surprised."

"There was a sense of kind of embarrassment and kind of oh my God what can I do to help," said his friend Kristina Southard whose house Rune was trying to find when he got robbed on Monday. "What can I do to help? I feel like I need to make up for it in some way or not."

Southard, while giving Rune a place to stay while he's stuck in Seattle, is also helping him make contact with the Norwegian Consulate to order a new passport. That could take several weeks and $170 Rune doesn't have. Until then he's hoping his televised plea will at least lead the thief to give back the stolen passport. He also hopes to find odd jobs in construction, landscaping, or commercial fishing to earn enough money to start his trip again.

Rune also showed us the weathered diary he's used to record his thoughts and experiences on his 16,000 mile journey. On the outside of that journal he's penned the words "never give up." He says he won't give up, not on his journey or on Seattle either.

"I've only be here a few days but...I hope things be better."

When Rune resumes his journey he plans to head for Vancouver, B.C. He wants to bicycle west to east across the entire length of Canada... in the winter.

PART 2 - Rune Monstad's grand adventure on a bicycle, if he sticks to his 3-year plan, will take him around the world.

The 33-year-old from Norway has already conquered the Pacific Coast of South America, the Gulf Coasts of Mexico and Texas, and a sweeping left turn that brought him through Wenatchee and into Seattle. That took nine months.

But within 30 minutes the Emerald City was already the worst part of his trip.

"Oh you will love Seattle," his friends told him. "It's a big city, people so friendly, and it's a beautiful city and I been here 30 minutes and I get robbed."

He admits what he did wasn't that smart and a bit too trusting. He says he went inside a Fremont grocery store to find a telephone. While he was inside, someone opened his bike bag and took his wallet that held his passport, his credit card and all of his cash: $500.

"I don't get robbed in South America, Central America. But when I came to Seattle it's the first time."

The reaction to our first story about Rune's plight was immediate - and generous.

By phone and e-mail, scores of people demanded a chance to help; to show him the real Seattle not just the one he met through the act of a Fremont thief.

We shared some of those e-mails with him Thursday afternoon. One of them promised to replace the stolen $500 with one check.

"$500!!!! Oh my God," he said. "Wow!"

Offers have also poured in for temporary housing, odd jobs to earn money, free bicycle tune-ups, and even coupons to dine for free at any Old County Buffet restaurant he might pass on the rest of his journey. He says people are also stopping him on the street, recognizing him from television, and placing $5 or more in his hand.

"It's the most amazing day I have the whole of my life I think here. I mean it! I bike nine months but nothing like this!"

This, he says, is the Seattle he had no idea was waiting for him at the end of his first 16,000 miles.

"Elske Seattle," he said in his native Norwegian.

"What does that mean?" I asked him.

"I love Seattle. I love the people here."

Perhaps with the lone exception of that Fremont thief.

The Norse Home Retirement Community has announced it plans to hold a Fundraiser Pancake Breakfast this Sunday morning and give all the proceeds to Rune Monstad.

He learned from Norwegian officials Thursday that it will likely take three weeks to get a new passport sent to him from Norway. Someone has already paid that fee for him too.

Part 3

SEATTLE - "People in Seattle may be the most friendly people in the United States I think."

Norwegian traveler Rune Monstad has several hundred reasons to believe that now. Two weeks after we first brought you his story he has been "overveldet" (overwhelmed) by an outpouring of support.

His web site chronicles the first nine months of what he plans to be an around the world trip on a bicycle. More than 16,000 miles into the journey he'd survived South and Central America, Mexico, and most of the United States.

But in what he admits was a "dumb" move, he left his fully loaded bicycle outside Marketime Foods in Seattle's Fremont neighborhood. A thief quickly took the passport, the credit card, and the $500 he had hidden in one of the bike bags.

"Oh you will love Seattle," he recounts his friends telling him. "It's a big city, people so friendly, and it's a beautiful city. And I been here 30 minutes and I get robbed. I don't get robbed in South America, Central America but when I came to Seattle it's the first time. I was very surprised."

But in these past two weeks he has been more surprised by what happened next. KOMO was flooded with phone calls and emails from viewers asking how they could help give him a better impression of Seattle. KOMO viewers sent $800.

After watching our stories, the Norse Home retirement community held a pancake breakfast fundraiser which brought him another $500. Donations from local businesses, and from strangers who have recognized him on the street, have brought the total of this show of Seattle goodwill in excess of four times what he lost to that Seattle thief.

Money was also donated to pay the cost of processing a new passport and getting it sent here from Norway.

And to guard against a theft like this again, Rune says Viking Bank, fittingly, has issued him travelers checks for the rest of his around the world journey.

And the wandering traveler who enjoyed anonymity here in the U.S. and in his native Norway now has neither - in neither place.

"When I'm walking downtown the pretty girls they run out from the store 'oh my God' you're the bike man from Norway!" he said of his tours through Seattle.

And in Norway his story of bad-turned-good-luck has been featured on TV, radio, and the leading newspapers in his home country. "Robbed - then Famous," says one headline. "Overwhelmed by the heartwarming people of Seattle," says another.

Monstad is still amazed by the response. "I don't understand this yet," he said. "People want to help me so much. I am very thankful for everything and I will never forget that. I will always have that in my heart."

Monstad says that when he receives his new passport he will resume his journey. His next adventure will take him from Vancouver, B.C. to the east coast of Canada.

Previous KOMO Stories:

'It's the most amazing day'

'Round the world journey halted by Seattle thief

Norwegian news coverage

www.tb.no

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