PORTLAND (AP) — A bicycle thief interrupted James Pryor’s plan to pedal from the nation’s southwestern point in California to its northeastern tip in Maine.

Pryor, a self-employed electrician from Flagstaff, Ariz., rode into Portland on his mountain bike last Friday, planning to work for a week or so to make enough money to cycle to northern Maine to complete the trip he began in April.

But on Monday, his 51st birthday, Pryor woke up to find that his $450, 21-speed mountain bike had been stolen. He had locked it to a metal railing next to the Oxford Street Shelter where he was staying.

“What’s so upsetting is that I was so close to completing my goal,” he said Wednesday.

Pryor, who pedaled along back roads through 14 states, stopped occasionally to do odd jobs and make enough money to continue. Portland was to be his last work stop.

His worst fear during the trip was losing the bike to a thief. He took precautions along the way — bringing the bike with him into supermarkets and sleeping with it nearby.

But he was told he had to leave the bike outside the Oxford Street Shelter because there was no room for it inside.

Pryor reported the theft to police and has been checking daily to see if it has been recovered. In addition, he wandered around the city for the past several days, trying to spot the metallic-blue Diamond Back model with a black aluminum rail over its rear wheel.

“I don’t want to get sentimental about it, but it’s not just a bike. It was my life and with it, I could do something better than most people,” he said.

If the bike doesn’t turn up, Pryor intends to find a temporary job and work at it longer than he had planned so he can buy another.

He may not have to, however. Radio station WPOR, which began a fund-raising campaign to buy Pryor a new bike, raised nearly $400 by midmorning. The station also got an offer from one listener to give Pryor a bike similar to the one that was stolen.

“So many people called up and said, `This is giving Portland a black eye, and I don’t like it,’ ” said Bud Sawyer, the station’s morning disc jockey.