Needing to replenish our stock of incense, Sarah and me recently dropped by Shanti Baba.

Aside from being a perennially cool store packed full of intriguing paraphernalia, rare objects, and numinous curios (a sort of spiritual head shop), the longtime owner is pretty knowledgeable about the Queen West area and offers Interesting tidbits whenever we visit.

This time around he wrote the name “KENK” on a pink Post-It and handed it to us with instructions to look it up. When I did I realized why the name sounded familiar: up until about a decade ago Igor Kenk had been a fixture in the neighbourhood and was widely recognized as “the world’s most prolific bicycle thief”.

I don’t know how many of the nearly 3000 bikes strewn across his properties Kenk was personally responsible for stealing but I suspect that his reputation is well-earned. He’s so notorious that TVO even decided to produce an interactive graphic novel about him. The guy has lived an interesting life.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Igor Kenk no longer lives in Toronto but he definitely left his mark.