Thieves are cutting through bike racks
Thieves are cutting through city bike racks and there seems no way to counter this, as any metal that can be formed into tubing and turned into a bike rack can necessarily also be cut with tools.
But people are making off with bikes that have U-locks on them. Those too will be cut off, but those stolen bikes are not being ridden away. There must be organized teams with tools and a truck – are the police making any efforts to identify them and track them down?
mare 02:44 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
Not necessarily with trucks. I’ve seen (Dutch) bike thieves that had a clip on their belt and just walked away pushing the bike, but with the rear wheel slightly lifted, but still locked. Also a lot of people just put their U lock around the frame, so they don’t have to kneel or bend over. Putting your lock tightly around the bottom of the pole might be a better way.
Unfortunately there’s not much you can do against a $100 angle grinder and a brazen thief. There are super hardened and thick locks that cost $300 and will take several disks to grind trough them, but if the thieves just cut the bike stand that fancy lock won’t help much. Those five disks they can do somewhere else with a bigger and better angle grinder. A ‘trend’ in the Netherlands is thieves just cutting the frames and harvesting the bike for parts, like the battery and motor. I have a rather cheap eBike (but expensive to me) and I use 5 locks and an alarm. I also have a tracker and insurance. Hopefully it will be too much effort and thieves will take another bike.
BTW “rappelant l’existence du service d’enregistrement de vélo Garage 529 pour lutter contre le vol géré par le Service de police de la Ville de Montréal.” is not true.
The site https://project529.com/garage is *not* run by the Montreal police, and not only for Montreal bikes. I’m glad they mention it though, because it means the SPVM does look there if they recover a bike, and try to track down the owner. If you have a bike, free registration there might mean you’ll get your bike back after the police finds a warehouse full of bikes. I don’t think finding those warehouses has a high priority though.
What would probably help if Kijiji and Facebook Marketplace would be required to ask for serial numbers of bikes, and photos of those serial numbers. And check those against a registry of bikes, and notify the police if there’s a match. And be liable for fencing stolen goods if they don’t. I have no illusion that will ever happen though.
Everyone who wants to buy a used bike, should look for the serial number beforehand, and check it against the two bike registries https://project529.com/garage and/or https://bikeindex.org/
And owners should register their bikes their and report it to the police. If the stolen bike numbers go up the police might be more active to protect their crime statistics.
Meezly 11:19 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
I plan to read the article later, but I’m guessing the proliferation of electric bikes is probably spurring thieves to invest in excellent grinders, and now all bikes are fair game.
steph 13:08 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
A friend of mine who lives in the mile end had his white van stolen from him a few years back. By chance, a few days later he found it parked near the VanHorn overpass, with 5 bikes loaded in the back. So obviously he called the cops. The only thing the police had to say was “They’re probably stolen bikes on their way to Toronto for sale on marketplace/kijiji there. You’re lucky you found your van”. They unloaded the bikes from the van and the cops just told my friend know he could be on his way. While he sorted things in the van, he saw the cops just drive away – leaving the bikes on the curb, obviously unlocked.
Blork 18:08 on 2023-02-18 Permalink
Totally aside, but I sometimes think I occasionally have very good luck. Years ago I left my bike in a crowded bike rack on the sidewalk in front of the YMCA on Drummond around 10:00AM and then went to work over on deMaisonneuve. I came back around 5:30 and there were only two or three other bikes left at the rack, including mine. That’s when I noticed my U lock still in its little harness. I had completely forgotten to lock it, and it was obvious to anyone who looked, even from a distance, that it wasn’t locked. Lucky me! (That time at least.)