From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for July 5, 1972:

The exact location where a child had left her bicycle after riding it was the question at the root of a recent occurrence on Pine Cone Drive. According to her mother, on May 24, 6-year-old Jennifer Fear “had been riding the bike just a few minutes prior to the trash pick-up and left it lying next to one of the large bins while she went into a playmate’s house. When she came out it was gone.” The worst had happened: Jennifer’s bike, a present from the previous year, had been hauled away by the city sanitation squad. The crew involved had told City Attorney Milton Allen that the bike had been in the two-yard container and that they had dumped it into the truck and hauled it to the landfill along with the rest of their load. The Fear family, unable to afford a replacement bike, had appealed to the Lawrence City Commission for the sum of $39.87, the original cost of the gift. After the claim had been denied, an anonymous donor had sent a brand new bicycle to the family’s home. City commissioners and staff said that they were as puzzled as the Fears about the identity of the mysterious gift-giver, insisting that “no public money was involved” in making good the loss.