Hyde Park bike shop owner fights to keep store open after falling behind on taxes

CHICAGO (WLS) -- The owner of a bike shop in Chicago is fighting to keep his store open. David Jones has been repairing bicycles in the city's Hyde Park neighborhood for more than three decades.

Jones says he is the victim of a bad accountant. The bike repair shop owner owes thousands of dollars in back taxes. While Jones is working on paying his tax bill, he worries a long winter could put him out of business.

Jones is open for business, and would like to keep it that way for a long time. After all, owning his own bike repair shop is a lifelong dream.

"This is my baby, this is basically what I put my heart and soul into. I've been doing this in this neighborhood for 35 years," said David Jones, owner, D.J.'s bike doctor.

After working for another shop in Hyde Park or 30 years, Jones went on his own and opened D.J.'S Bike Doctor on E. 55th St. But, Jones found out the hard way that owning a business is much different that running one.

"I made the mistake of hiring a friend of the family when I first opened my business as an accountant, who said he was gonna help me out, get the business set up, straightened out and everything squared away," Jones said.

Jones says it turns out his accountant friend was doing everything but getting his business squared away. The accountant disappeared with all of Jones' paperwork after the bike shop owner found out he was $30,000 behind in taxes because the accountant wasn't filing tax documents correctly.

"I basically myself had to, by myself, go to the IRS and the state and get on payment plan, so I'm on a payment plan with both of them in paying off debts," Jones said.

Between paying back taxes as well as current sales, income and corporate taxes, Jones is worried he can't keep his business going especially in the slow winter months. Knife sharpening, bike storage and fixing wheelchairs and walkers add extra income, but what Jones can really use is an early spring.

"All want to do is keep this place going, make a decent living, maybe make a little to retire on," Jones said.

While this winter hasn't been bad, Jones is still making up from last winter when business was really down. The bike repair shop owner says he has hired a good accountant and book keeper who are doing the work correctly, and Jones says they are not family friends.