As far as firefighters Dean McAuley and Evan Stanley are concerned, Jim Cook is a Tacoma icon.
“He is Tacoma,” said Stanley, a Tacoma resident who works for the Ocean Shores Fire Department.
For the past 25 years Jim Cook has waved to passersby on the Tacoma waterfront while holding a sign advertising the Lobster Shop. He says he likes the job because “I like being outdoors.”
McAuley, who lives in North Tacoma and works for Auburn’s Valley Regional Fire Authority, sees Cook regularly when he walks the waterfront with his family. He stops to talk to him. “He puts smiles on a lot of people’s faces,” McAuley said.
So when McAuley learned somebody had stolen Cook’s bike, he decided to do something about it. Cook says his bike was stolen while he worked last summer.
On Monday, McAuley and Stanley met Cook in the Lobster Shop parking lot to present him with a refurbished bike.
“Thank you,” Cook said as he shook hands with the men. Moments later, responding to a comment by Stanley, he added, “I love Tacoma.”
Cook has been using another gift bike since his was stolen.
McAuley saw Cook last summer, moments before the bike was stolen. He was walking with his family and stopped to talk to Cook when a man who McAuley described “as not right”
started saying Cook’s bike was his. McAuley intervened as best as he could with his children in tow, and warned McAuley to keep an eye on the bike.