Thursday, February 15, 2007

Bike shop manager Bill Houghton

In April 2003, Bruce McGrew opened Pro Cycling in Colorado Springs, Colorado. McGrew needed a manager, so he hired William Reeese Houghton to manage his store.

Houghton was an experienced bike store manager, starting at age 17 at online retailer Colorado Cyclist as a warehouse stocker. He worked his way up to become General Manager before leaving Colorado Cyclist in 2002.

In 2003, McGrew lost $400,000. He lost $280,000 in 2004 and $110,000 in 2005, so McGrew hired a consultant to figure out where the money was going.

It turns out Houghton was fired in 2002 from Colorado Cyclist for stealing from that store. At Pro Cycling, Houghton listed shop inventory on eBay, used the shop's FedEx account to ship the merchandise, and pocketed the revenue. Houghton stole $375,000 from McGrew, and made $147,605 in his venture.

"Bike theft suspect racking up charges." - January 28, 2006.

"Bike shop thief aggrees to deal." - February 14, 2007.

3 comments:

Wallet B. Grundle said...

OMFG that is sooooooo wrong. That's like being a bike thief (which, for me, ranks up there with guys who hit women) but worse. Wow.

Anonymous said...

To bad most of the people reading this and other articles on this subject do not realize that Houghton is actually a part OWNER and that Bruce McGrew is a crook and doped up drug head along with his so called consultant.

Yokota Fritz said...

Anonymous, would you mind providing some more information along with your bona fides? I'm interested in learning more.