Pedal Bike Tours cargo trailer stolen from northeast Portland street

A cargo trailer belonging to Pedal Bike Tours, a bike rental and tour company based in Portland, has been stolen.

According to company employee Scott Klees, the trailer is a 12-foot long, single-axle, Continental Cargo Trailer. It was stolen off the street near the corner of NE 7th and Church on the night of Monday, December 3rd. Here’s more from Klees:

“… one of our guides used the van and trailer last Monday after BikeCraft to haul the garbage from BikeCraft out to the dump. Afterwards he parked both the van and the trailer near the corner of NE 7th and Church St. The following Saturday morning, the same guide went to retrieve the van and trailer for a tour only to find the trailer gone and the van moved slightly from where it was parked originally.”


The trailer was locked to the hitch of the Pedal Bike Tours van. Klees assumes the thieves cut the chains and hooked the trailer up to another vehicle.

Here are a few more photos:

Anyone with information should call Pedal Bike Tours at 503-243-2453 or send an e-mail to info@pedalbiketours.com.

UPDATE, 1/3: Here’s what we’ve just heard from Pedal Bike Tours. Turns out it wasn’t stolen after all!:

“…We recovered our trailer. Fortunately it was not stolen, but rather towed by the city. It took the city nearly two weeks to notify us of the tow. This was after the trailer was reported stolen. We may be able to recover some of the storage fees, but paying those fees is better than a new trailer.”

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Jonathan Maus (Publisher/Editor)

Founder of BikePortland (in 2005). Father of three. North Portlander. Basketball lover. Car owner and driver. If you have questions or feedback about this site or my work, feel free to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, via email at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or phone/text at 503-706-8804. Also, if you read and appreciate this site, please become a supporter.

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Chris I
Chris I
11 years ago

So it was empty? I bet the meth-heads were upset when they opened it up…

Rol
Rol
11 years ago
Reply to  Chris I

Too bad it wasn’t still full of garbage. Anyway, presumably they’ll just abandon it somewhere and it’ll be back in no time. I can’t imagine them removing all those graphics.

Jeffrey Bernards
11 years ago

Time to put GPS units on your valuable inventory. Their putting them in Rhinoceros horns to prevent poaching and hopefully catch the bad guys.

Brian E
11 years ago

I was curious about getting one for the dog. Wow, the technology has come a long way.

Skid
Skid
11 years ago

It’s an aluminum trailer, there’s it’s scrap value. Do they steal everything that isn’t nailed down or just everything bike related?

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago

This sounds familiar; just over a year ago someone stole NWTA’s trailer and the heavy equipment inside.

Is this a seasonal thing?

Couldn’t someone just sell a giant padlock like thing that renders a trailer untowable? For tractor trailers they use a king pin lock which fits over the the pin of the trailer making normal non-suspicious towing impossible. I suspect a small trailer for tongue lock and a “Flintstones” wheel lock ought to make theft less cost effective in most cases.

Chris I
Chris I
11 years ago
Reply to  q`Tzal

http://www.buy.com/prod/denver-claw-wheel-boot-tire-lock/227146712.html?listingId=194975671

Seems like cheap insurance… but there is the hassle factor of having to take it on and off every time.

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  Chris I

Or the hassle of finding your trailer stolen,
filing a report with the police,
following up with the police,
filing a report with your insurance company,
following up with your insurance company,
getting your rates raised by your insurance company,
and ultimately replacing the stolen trailer and everything inside.

It is a hassle to lock belongings like bikes, cars and houses but we find that it is necessary in our society and have adapted; things haven’t been like Mayberry for a long time.

Racer X
Racer X
11 years ago

You just cannot park any trailer on the streets of Portland overnight and expect it to be there in the AM…I am assuming that the hitch or trailer was not locked up to anything solid.

Chris I
Chris I
11 years ago
Reply to  Racer X

Not to mention that it is really rude to store a trailer on public property like this. The streets are not meant for long-term private property storage, as much as everyone would like to think they are.

bunbun
bunbun
11 years ago
Reply to  Chris I

but i turned my driveway into a garden!

Psyfalcon
Psyfalcon
11 years ago
Reply to  bunbun

The driveways do seem to soak up a lot of heat. It can make growing peppers much easier…

A.K.
A.K.
11 years ago
Reply to  Chris I

So overnight is “long term”?

A.K.
A.K.
11 years ago
Reply to  A.K.

Sorry my bad, it looks like it was for a week and not a single night.

SilkySlim
SilkySlim
11 years ago

I’d like to see more pressure on these scrapping outfits to require folks to demonstrate some type of ownership.

I know that when my office was getting rid a bunch of old metal parts/signs, the guy we had pick it up asked if we could print out something on our letterhead for him to present (some of the metal had our logo on it). I’d hope most scrappers would question why a perfectly good trailer with a nice looking logo (and phone number!) on it would be headed to the junkyard.

Scott
Scott
11 years ago
Reply to  SilkySlim

More pressure like denying the Portland contractor by bike entry to scrap because he was not in a motorized vehicle?

SilkySlim
SilkySlim
11 years ago

If he is toeing a spankin’ new trailer into the yard to be destroyed for money, yeah. I understand that the subset of junk with identifiable owners going into these yards is small, but how about double checking the ones most prone to theft? AKA, things with wheels. Especially when they have a darn phone number on the side.

I don’t see how the toeing conveyance (car/bike/boat) has anything to do with it. I am not even talking about more regulations, how about some common sense by these scrapper businesses? That would help both situations.

Patrick
Patrick
11 years ago

Trailers are valuable. New paint & sell it in Vancouver.

Marty
Marty
11 years ago

Title needs to change from North Portland street to NE Portland street

bh
bh
11 years ago

I am so unbelievably sick of thieves that it isn’t funny. What the hell, people? Stop taking stuff that isn’t yours.

joel
11 years ago

i live just down the street from where this trailer was stolen, and the interesting thing is that theres another, nearly identical trailer, parked 24/7/365 a couple houses down from where this was stolen. just as unsecured. im betting someone was banking on this one being full of bikes.

either way, trailer theft is a win/win for thieves – even if theres nothing in it, you still get a nice trailer – easily disguised and flipped. and worst case scenario, you strip it and scrap it. hitch and wheel locks are expensive, but worth it. locking the tow chains means nothing to someone with a truck and bolt cutters.

heres hoping pedal bike gets lucky and this trailer is recovered!

jim
jim
11 years ago

It’s probably loaded up with stolen goods and is on its way to a California flea market. Its probably had some house paint rolled over it to hide the graphics which should telegraph through the paint. It could be on its way to Mexico also, if that’s the case then hope it is caught at the boarder.

J.M. Jones
J.M. Jones
11 years ago

Does anyone find it odd that the police department is not mentioned? Would like to see a movement that would facilitate or force the Public Agency (police department) to do their job to PREVENT crime AND bring to justice those who commit crimes. A great deal of public funds go to these types of agencies and I, for one, am not seeing much in the way of “crime fighting”…….

q`Tzal
q`Tzal
11 years ago
Reply to  J.M. Jones

Gotta fund the War on Drugs first.
Then the prison industrial complex.
If we prevent or reduce crime many people will lose their jobs; are you anti-jobs?

/satire

Steve Cheseborough (Contributor)
Chezztone
11 years ago

Why does the headline call this North Portland? Obviously it is Northeast.

Adams Carroll (News Intern)
Reply to  Chezztone

good catch Chezztone, No good reason. I think it’s because I live in north Portland and I sometimes think of places in NE Portland as being in “my neighborhood” so I make the mistake of referring to it as North Portland when technically, as you point out, it’s not. Thanks.