He's not the messiah, he's just a very naughty boy!

Mr. Kenk, 49, has kept Toronto at rapt attention for two weeks, as police executed 16 search warrants on his Queen Street West shop, his home in tony Yorkville, and a series of garages he rented in the west part of downtown. And this week, journalists and bike activists packed the courtroom for a glimpse of him. He stared impassively through half-open eyes in a hangdog face as a crown attorney read out 29 charges of possession of property obtained by crime, and 21 counts of possession of drugs (cocaine, marijuana and crack cocaine). Then he took the stand for about two hours over two days, offering long, rambling answers to straightforward questions, all in a colourful English weighted by the accent of his native Slovenia. On Friday, a judge released him on $275,000 bail. Asked by reporters what his plans were now, he said simply: "I'm a dead man."

A publication ban prevents media from reporting what Mr. Kenk told the court this week. But given that police have displayed 2,850 bicycles they say they found at addresses Mr. Kenk rented or owned, most people wonder: is he nuts? "It seems like he's this weird kind of pack rat," says Marsh Thornley, who commutes by bike from west downtown to his job at a branding company, and who lost a True North bike to theft two years ago.