Bike Thieves: Know Thy Enemy

[wsbob]

Went to yahoo's page tonight, and there's a stolen bike recovery story amongst the rolling news bits. Kind of qualifies as a 'stupid thief' story too.

Colorado Woman Spots Stolen Bike on Craigslist, Steals it Back

[Alan]

A piece yesterday in BikinginLA blog about the L.A. Sheriff’s Department breaking up a bike theft ring reminded me of this thread:

...the suspects would identify bike owners through Facebook, Craigslist and geotagged photos, and exchange emails using a fictitious name and email address. Then they would research their victims and their homes online before driving to their houses at night, breaking in and stealing their bikes.

It goes on to say that the bikes were mostly stripped and parted out, but the cops have 40 frames and 100 wheels they hope to return to the owners.

Creeps!

[scaryseth]

Wow, that is creepy.

I think it was this thread that mentioned bikes being stolen and moved to bike parking elsewhere and locked up. I have started noticing bikes that appear to be abandoned at bike parking spots. An example are 2 I have seen for months at the Beaverton library.

[DrJerry]

Scaryseth.That is close to what I would see in Holland. A bike would be "stolen" by some one who would just not want to walk home. Bike is then left somewhere or dumped into a canal. When the pile of bikes in the bottom of the canal gets so deep it is a hazard to barge traffic, they are dredged out. Another observation of mine: Outside of Amsterdam, the Dutch crime rate is close to 0% . It is common to see bikes just leaned against the front of the house. I made the remark to where I was staying that in the USA the bike would be gone before she got back in the house.