Bike theft is a common crime - no happy ending in most cases

Bike theft is a common crime - no happy ending in most cases
By Ed Fletcher and Hudson Sangree

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/1639150.html

Published: Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 - 12:00 am | Page 6B
Last Modified: Friday, Feb. 20, 2009 - 7:28 am

Hey, what about my bike?

That's what lots of local cyclists have been saying this week as
police worked to crack the Lance Armstrong $10,000-plus bike theft
case.

Each year, several thousand bicycles are stolen in the region – and
few result in even a token police investigation.

Shawna Sanders, a student at Sacramento City College, said Thursday
the lack of any follow-up on her missing bike case "really irritated"
her.

Sanders, a biology student, said her old bike was swiped from her
backyard near Curtis Park. She carefully secured her new bike's frame
to a bike rack with a U-shaped lock.

"I understand that they have a lot going on, but … " she said.

Her story isn't unusual, city police officials say, but the reality is
there are few leads to work in bike thefts and when budgets are tight,
public safety cases win.

"Unfortunately, property crimes are not the top priority right now,"
said Officer Michelle Lazark.

The Armstrong case – which continues to be investigated – has been a
priority.

On Wednesday afternoon, a local resident dropped off Armstrong's
custom-made gold-and- black time trial bike at police headquarters on
Freeport Boulevard. Police said the citizen is not a suspect.

From the beginning, police said the theft of the Team Astana bikes
warranted a higher level of investigation because the bikes were worth
so much money, there was evidence to examine, and the theft had gained
international attention. Armstrong has won the Tour de France seven
times and was in Sacramento on Saturday competing in the Amgen Tour of
California against the top names in international cycling.

The theft's publicity – not fingerprints or videotape – led to the
bike's recovery. The finder messaged Armstrong, saying he was a big
fan.

Two bikes also taken from the truck parked near the Capitol on
Valentine's Day weekend are still missing.

The authorities are not identifying the man, who they said "did the
right thing," and are still investigating leads.

"We have workable information," said Sgt. Norm Leong. "But it's not
like we've been given it wrapped up in a bow."

As fresh tips continued to surface Thursday, dozens of more ordinary
bikes – apparently unwanted – were hanging in a North Sacramento
warehouse.

About 50 of them were in the Sacramento Police Department's property
room there. Each week, the bikes will be sorted: those going to a
police auction, those being given to charity and those waiting to be
claimed.

Milt Payne, the property room manager, said the public is allowed to
come look at the bikes, but few do. Forms must be filled out with the
missing bike's description before a victim can enter the room.

Most of the bikes eventually go to auction. He estimated that only 10
percent to 20 percent of recovered bikes are claimed.

Citywide, 1,551 bikes were reported stolen over the last three years.
In Davis, where bikes outnumber people, bicycle theft is a common
crime. The city had 358 reported bike thefts last year, said Assistant
Police Chief Steve Pierce. But the number is likely higher since many
people don't report their bikes stolen.

He said while some bikes are stolen for financial gain, some are
stolen for quick transportation.

"Someone needs to get from point A to point B, and they don't feel
like walking," Pierce said.

Officials said the best way to recover a stolen bike is to know the
serial number – and to register it with local law enforcement, where
such programs exit.

Pierce said his sister registered her purple bike as a freshman at UC
Davis. It was recovered 10 years later, and campus authorities called
their mother.

At UC Davis, where there are 15,000 to 20,000 bikes on campus on peak
days, 675 bikes were reported stolen last year, said campus police Lt.
Matt Carmichael.

In addition to knowing your serial number, Carmichael recommends
checking online classifieds for missing bikes.

"Watch Craigslist," he said. "Look on there. You might find it. It's
not uncommon for a victim to call and say, 'Hey, I think I saw my bike
on Craigslist.' "

He said he had just heard from a student who had found her stolen bike
for sale on craigslist.org. The woman had arranged to meet the seller
in Sacramento.

When she got there, he said, she found the bike locked to a pole, and
local police cut it free for her.

Lenny Kovner, a mechanic at the Bicycle Business in Sacramento, knows
the pain of having a bike stolen.

While working as a bike messenger in New York City, he said he had a
bike stolen after thieves dismantled the street sign to which it was
locked.

But Kovner said most people who have their bikes stolen haven't locked
them securely. "If you lock up your bike properly with a U-bolt to
something secure," he said, "it's not going to get stolen."

On Feb 23, 9:35*am, Ablang wrote:
Bike theft is a common crime - no happy ending in most cases
By Ed Fletcher and Hudson Sangree

..

But Kovner said most people who have their bikes stolen haven't locked
them securely. "If you lock up your bike properly with a U-bolt to
something secure," he said, "it's not going to get stolen."


absolute bull****- no matter WHAT you use, it can get stolen- WHERE
you put it is far more important

On 23 Feb 2009, wrote in rec.bicycles.misc:

absolute bull****- no matter WHAT you use, it can get stolen-
WHERE you put it is far more important

Where do you suggest?

On Feb 24, 11:23*am, Nil wrote:
On 23 Feb 2009, wrote in rec.bicycles.misc:

absolute bull****- no matter WHAT you use, it can get stolen-
WHERE you put it is far more important

Where do you suggest?

take it inside your home and your workplace. An office tower will have
a number of utility closets etc. so even if building security won't
let you take it up with you you might be able to get a security
supervisor or something to help you out- get a bit chummy with the guy
first, find out what booze he likes come in with a bottle and say hey
this is yours if you can find me a good spot for my bike.
when I go on the road and need to grab some refills at a convience
store I go right in with my bike- don't even ask- just go in, and if
it's a problem take your business elsewhere.
obviously, that is not even the tip of the iceberg, but my point is
the u locks don't mean squat and just leaving it out locked or not
means it is suseptable to theft

In article ,
writes:
On Feb 24, 11:23*am, Nil wrote:
On 23 Feb 2009, wrote in rec.bicycles.misc:

absolute bull****- no matter WHAT you use, it can get stolen-
WHERE you put it is far more important

Where do you suggest?
take it inside your home and your workplace. An office tower will have
a number of utility closets etc. so even if building security won't
let you take it up with you you might be able to get a security
supervisor or something to help you out- get a bit chummy with the guy
first, find out what booze he likes come in with a bottle and say hey
this is yours if you can find me a good spot for my bike.
when I go on the road and need to grab some refills at a convience
store I go right in with my bike- don't even ask- just go in, and if
it's a problem take your business elsewhere.
obviously, that is not even the tip of the iceberg, but my point is
the u locks don't mean squat and just leaving it out locked or not
means it is suseptable to theft

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that the best security
is to keep your bike with you. Next best is to park it
where you can keep an eye on it.

Sometimes neither approach is possible. But there are
plenty of on-line, Google-able suggestions as to how
best to secure a parked bike.

On rainy days I'm often loathe to bring my bike indoors
because the tires will leave dirt tracks on somebody's
freshly washed floor.

The popular/conventional wisdom is to park/lock one's
bike in a highly public area, use a combination of
U-lock & cable locks, and take any removable parts
indoors with you, including lights and Quick Release
saddles. But those are only mitigating efforts, and
still don't totally preclude the possibility of theft
or vandalism.


cheers,
Tom



--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

On Feb 24, 7:57 pm, (Tom Keats) wrote:
In article ,
writes:



On Feb 24, 11:23 am, Nil wrote:
On 23 Feb 2009, wrote in rec.bicycles.misc:

absolute bull****- no matter WHAT you use, it can get stolen-
WHERE you put it is far more important

Where do you suggest?
take it inside your home and your workplace. An office tower will have
a number of utility closets etc. so even if building security won't
let you take it up with you you might be able to get a security
supervisor or something to help you out- get a bit chummy with the guy
first, find out what booze he likes come in with a bottle and say hey
this is yours if you can find me a good spot for my bike.
when I go on the road and need to grab some refills at a convience
store I go right in with my bike- don't even ask- just go in, and if
it's a problem take your business elsewhere.
obviously, that is not even the tip of the iceberg, but my point is
the u locks don't mean squat and just leaving it out locked or not
means it is suseptable to theft

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that the best security
is to keep your bike with you. Next best is to park it
where you can keep an eye on it.

That's why a real ute bike is incomplete w/o a kickstand. Leaning
your bike precariously up against store displays is tacky.

landotter wrote:
:: That's why a real ute bike is incomplete w/o a kickstand. Leaning
:: your bike precariously up against store displays is tacky.

I lean mine up against the side wall where it is unobtrusive.

Pat

Tom Keats wrote:

writes:

[...] my point is
the u locks don't mean squat and just leaving it out locked or not
means it is suseptable to theft

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that the best security
is to keep your bike with you. *Next best is to park it
where you can keep an eye on it.

Sometimes neither approach is possible. *But there are
plenty of on-line, Google-able suggestions as to how
best to secure a parked bike.

My suggestion is to ride a bike so tall that it makes a thief's
testicles retract when he considers riding away on it. Works for me,
anyway.

Another line of defense is to ride a weird old bike with personal
touches like kitty litter bucket panniers. I've been tempted to make
large labels for my buckets reading "used cloth diapers" and
"compostable items". You know, just for good measure. It would fit
in with most folks' preconceptions about utility cyclists anyway.

I built a bike for one of my friends who lived in Santa Cruz CA at the
time, a notoriously bike-thieving place. After building the frame, I
coated it with rattlecan red oxide primer before hitting it with a
thin coat of cheap 'n cheesy gloss black. By the time it had been
packed, shipped, and unpacked, it already looked like the wrath of
God. To enhance the effect, I fitted a new old stock 1980s saddle
panty with a black/white/neon pink stripe pattern. Ick.

Chalo

In article ,
landotter writes:

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that the best security
is to keep your bike with you. Next best is to park it
where you can keep an eye on it.

That's why a real ute bike is incomplete w/o a kickstand. Leaning
your bike precariously up against store displays is tacky.

So true. Which brings to mind an issue I've recently
come up against -- with my one-legged kickstand, I had
no troubles with the milkcrate atop the rack arrangement.
But with the pannier-like Axiom Hunter[tm] bag on the
side, heavier loads want to tip the bike over.
Maybe I need another bag on the other side for balance.

I guess leaning track bikes against stuff like
pickle jar or paint can pyramids isn't ~quite~
as tacky, but it still doesn't seem like good
form to me. Leaning anything at all on a store
display sounds like tempting disaster.

My Raleigh Twenty has one of those bipod kickstands
on it, and it's a lot more stable. The bike tends
to teeter-totter on the stand, but that's not really
a problem. In fact it could be an advantage for
shifter adjusting. I really should get around to
making a shopping bike out of it (the whole Twenty,
not just the kickstand.) Or I could put the bipod
stand on my current all-purpose bike, and use the
Twenty for a loooking-goood bike. Except my current
main whip isn't so conducive to kickstands that mount
behind the bottom bracket. Decisions, decisions.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca

In article ,
Chalo writes:
Tom Keats wrote:

writes:

[...] my point is
the u locks don't mean squat and just leaving it out locked or not
means it is suseptable to theft

I wholeheartedly agree with you, that the best security
is to keep your bike with you. *Next best is to park it
where you can keep an eye on it.

Sometimes neither approach is possible. *But there are
plenty of on-line, Google-able suggestions as to how
best to secure a parked bike.
My suggestion is to ride a bike so tall that it makes a thief's
testicles retract when he considers riding away on it. Works for me,
anyway.
Another line of defense is to ride a weird old bike with personal
touches like kitty litter bucket panniers. I've been tempted to make
large labels for my buckets reading "used cloth diapers" and
"compostable items". You know, just for good measure. It would fit
in with most folks' preconceptions about utility cyclists anyway.
I built a bike for one of my friends who lived in Santa Cruz CA at the
time, a notoriously bike-thieving place. After building the frame, I
coated it with rattlecan red oxide primer before hitting it with a
thin coat of cheap 'n cheesy gloss black. By the time it had been
packed, shipped, and unpacked, it already looked like the wrath of
God. To enhance the effect, I fitted a new old stock 1980s saddle
panty with a black/white/neon pink stripe pattern. Ick.

Last weekend I encountered Zoot down Main St. I told him
about my tactic of leaving used Kleenexes atop stuff in
in my cargo carriers to dissuade passers-by from reaching
in there and snooping around. So he told me about his idea
of using condoms as handgrip covers, which pretty much trumps
my own idea of tethering a pet skunk to the bike.

As for the used Kleenex thing -- when I had the milk crate,
there were times I returned to my parked bike to find other
people had used the milk crate as a receptacle for used
paper coffee cups and candy bar wrappers. I mean, gee whiz!
Just because it's a pig sty, doesn't mean it's public.


cheers,
Tom

--
Nothing is safe from me.
I'm really at:
tkeats curlicue vcn dot bc dot ca