PBOT director Treat.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

The bike that introduced Portland transportation director Leah Treat to pedal commuting can't catch a break: It's now been stolen once from each of the three cities where she's worked.

Its most recent swipe came some time Thursday night, when Treat cable-locked her blue Breezer Greenway in the loggia outside day care entrance at the Portland Building, where she works.

"Because I had a ton of meetings that night at various places around town, I ended up leaving her overnight," Treat, who joined the bureau in July, wrote in an email Monday. "I now know that wasn't such a smart thing to do."

The bike, which she's named Beatrice, has a white seat, white grips, black fenders and a "LaSalle" parking permit on the front fender.

(more...)

Because we can never get enough of hearing about how people get their stolen bikes back, we present you two more stories of stolen bike recovery success.

But before getting into some good news, we have some not-so-good news about our Stolen Bike Listings. Due to a software issue that's causing duplicate postings, I've decided to disable the listings until we can get it fixed. Sorry about that. Now, back to our regularly scheduled programming...

Our first story comes from Vancouver resident Branden Shelby. You might recall that Branden was the subject of one of our Ride Alongs back in April. A few months after our story, the same bike he rode with me that morning, a LeMond Poprad, was stolen from his side yard. Branden had put a lot of love into his bike, upgrading it over the years with a green Brooks saddle, green BMX pedals, and other nice touches. Unfortunately, he posted it to our Stolen Bike Listings on July 23rd with a $100 reward. (more...)

Metropolis lost several
thousand dollars in the theft.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Metropolis Cycle Repair (2249 N Williams Ave) was broken into last night, becoming just the latest in a long and steady stream of bike shop burglaries.

According to shop owner Nathan Roll, thieves took four bikes and "a few thousand dollars in tools and merchandise." The Police have been at the store all morning to assess the damage and document the crime.

Roll has emailed all the other shops in town to keep an eye out for the merchandise and he's hoping the larger community will help out too. He emailed us a list of the products that were stolen: (more...)

Still from new PPB video.
Watch it below.

The Portland Police Bureau has a long history of working with the community to catch bike thieves and educate folks about how to prevent bikes from being stolen in the first place. Today, with summer cycling season in full swing, they've released a video and a statement about bike theft prevention and recovery. The main focus of their message: Know your serial number.

"The Division has hundreds of unclaimed bikes, due to owners not knowing their serial numbers," reads their statement, "Only 34% of bike theft victims knew their bike's serial number last year - making it harder for police to identify the bike recovered."
(more...)

Whoever got this silver Specialized stolen yesterday, we have some good news.

This just in from reader Chris K.:

I was riding a block from the office yesterday when I saw the bike and recognized it as my coworkers. Followed to dude to a stop light and told him it was my friends and that I was going to get it back. He argued for a while while I was on the phone with the cops but eventually threw it down and walked away when he realized I was serious. The look on her face was priceless, when I carried the bike back into the office. That's two recovered bikes for me this summer!

Audrey and Neil Burkhardt, happily reunited with their bikes.
(Photo courtesy Audrey Burkhardt)

Late Tuesday night someone broke into Audrey and Neil Burkhardt's garage and stole three of their bikes. Less than 24 hours later, thanks to the bravery and quick thinking of two bike shop employees, they got two of them back.

Audrey shared with us that the thieves smashed through a padlocked door just six feet from where she was sleeping in their home in the Piedmont neighborhood (near Lombard and Vancouver). "The emotional turmoil and the loss of my transportation, stress relief, exercise, etc., was hard," she shared.

Audrey acted fast. She filed a police report and listed all three bikes on our Stolen Bike Listings. She spent the day dealing with the theft, then later that evening she got an email from Eric Swain, an employee at Revolver Bikes on N Interstate and Rosa Parks Way. They had recovered two of the three bikes.
(more...)

Locking up is looking safer.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Here's some great news for downtown Portland: it seems to be getting safer for parked bikes. Much safer.

You might have seen recent media reports that Portland bike theft reports dipped 13 percent citywide last year, according to a new Portland Police Bureau report. But what you didn't read was that fully half of the drop came from a single neighborhood: downtown.

In 2011, one in 10 bikes reported stolen in the city was lifted from downtown Portland. Last year, the ratio fell to one in 20.

It comes out to 150 fewer bikes swiped from the city's densest neighborhood, down from about 280 in 2011 to 107 in 2012. Authorities say they don't know what caused such a sharp and localized drop.

"Of course we’d love to say that it’s because of the increased awareness we have provided on securing bikes," police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson wrote in an email. "But very hard to quantify." (more...)

A Monkey Shield sticker probably
won't keep thieves off your
bike, but it might get it back.

Across the river in Vancouver, police, a bike shop and a local bike advocate sat down over beers and came up with a smart, simple, free program to help recover stolen bikes.

Here's how it works, starting this month: When you buy a frame from Bad Monkey Bikes in Vancouver's Uptown Village area, Bad Monkey enters your bike's serial number and contact info in their database and applies a special "Monkey Shield" sticker to show that it's done so.

"When the police or C-Tran or any department recovers a bicycle and it has that Bad Monkey sticker, then they know it's registered and know to call me," shop manager Wade Leckie said Thursday.

(more...)

Flyer for bike theft workshop on April 30th.

Bike theft is a major issue in Portland. So far this year we've had 259 bikes posted to our Stolen Bike Listings and the numbers are on the upswing. Now a pair of graduate students at Portland State University want to raise public awareness about bike theft and they've got a novel idea how to do it.

Erin Charpentier is a student working on her Master of Fine Arts degree in PSU's Art and Social Practice program. "This means," wrote Charpentier in an email today, "that my creative practice involves social engagement in some form. This can look like a lot of different things; education, activism, participatory performance, creative interventions."
(more...)

Stolen Littleford.
(Photo: Littleford Custom Bicycles)

Portland bicycle maker Jon Littleford (Littleford Custom Bicycles) spent two months building a touring bike for the North American Handmade Bicycle Show last February. On Thursday it was stolen from him while parked in front of the Multnomah County Courthouse (1021 SW 4th Ave) for less than an hour. Now Littleford is working every possible angle to get it back.

The $6,500 bike, featured on BikeRumor.com as "bombproof", was locked up in front of the courthouse at about 9:30 am Thursday morning while Littleford cleared up a traffic ticket inside. He reported it immediately to a County police officer inside the building. Fortunately, the theft was caught on video and police are reviewing it. Multnomah County Sheriffs Deputy Troy Hakala reviewed the tape and says this is how the theft went down: (more...)