Got a few bike theft stories that deserve some attention so I figured I’d round them up.
We all know bike thieves are mean; but they are also getting increasingly clever. Marion Rice sent in a photo of the bike parking staple her daughter’s bike was parked to outside their daycare. The thief (or thieves) unscrewed the rack and took the bike. This isn’t a big surprise to us, as we’ve covered the unscrewing method in the past.
First, our friend Susan Otcenas shared the news of a particularly sad theft. Portlander Asta Chastain works as a SoupCycle employee, delivering meals by bike throughout the city. Her 1990s Specialized Hard Rock mountain bike (which happened to be photographed in a recent BikePortland story) was stolen while it was attached to her Soup Cycle trailer. Susan says Asta lots a lot of gear and tools with her bike, so this is a big loss. Check out this post for more information and keep your eyes peeled for her bike.
And finally, consider this next one a lesson on how to read — and be wary of — Craigslist postings. A reader sent a link to this sale post thinking that it looked very fishy. When I posted it to Twitter, most everyone agreed. Read it below and judge for yourself:
- Howdy everybody
Happy holidays to all
I have way too many bikes to list them individually so I apologize
If u come to view/purchase u will understand
I have road ,mountain, hybrids, tagalongs,tandems,trailers and more
All big name brands- no cheap or junk bikes. Sorry no kids or bmx
All bikes recently serviced/rebuilt ( I am a bike mechanic so you know u r getting quality)
Very unusual collection – most bikes look new
If u really need a bike don’t miss this. U need to call
If you r just looky looing or low balling please don’t waste my time
Cash only- bring it with u or u will NOT be allowed to view
(sorry but this is due to all the looky loos)
Please call *******Number deleted by moderator**** anyday 9 am-9pm
This may be your chance to get a killer deal- don’t wait!
Be smart out their folks. Keep your wheels safe.
UPDATE, 12/2/14: The man who made the Craigslist post I published in this story has contacted me. He says he has never stolen a bike and that he runs a legitimate business refurbishing used bikes and selling them online. He is now very upset and says BikePortland has caused him to lose business and be falsely accused of several thefts.
FWIW, I reprinted the CL ad verbatim without the man’s name and then his name was brought up here in the comments. I regret any harm done to him or his business.
I have edited the story to remove the reference to his business phone number and his name. -Jonathan
Thanks for reading.
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That does it: I’ll be paranoid and get a second Kryptonite. And the Soup Cycle story bums me out. Hope Asta gets her machine back. Bummer!
I don’t see Asta’s Hard Rock listed in http://www.stolenbicycleregistry.com yet. C’mon, victims, that’s probably your best chance to recover your bike. Take advantage of the great tool that Brian provides! And all those bikes in the flaky Craigslist add…if anyone checks out those bikes, run as many as you can through that site’s searches for serial number, country, state, city, zip code, or brand.
For the staple racks, a drop of LocTite on the threads or a tack weld would make it harder for thieves, or a continuous steel plate across the bottom. Yeah, still subject to sawing or grinding through the staple or the plate, but that’s more time, noise and specialized tools to slow or deter a crook.
I don’t even see it listed in the BikePortland listings (which cross-list with the SBR listings) … 🙁
the picture of the broken rack looks like the bolts are still in the ground, so I’m thinking that they used a power-cutter to take the heads off the bolts rather than unscrewing them…
also, it’s not the standard city-rack blue, so was this a privately-owned staple like the one that’s in the linked story?
another good reason to also lock through your wheel, you can’t ride it away if you only cut the object it’s locked to…
Just a guess, Spiffy, but I’d say those are studs set in the concrete, which had nuts on them. As opposed to bolts screwed into something with the heads cut off. Just from experience with bolting things to concrete, studs are typical.
i work there. nothing was cut. it’s a psu rack.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Portland Police and bike advocates need to get proactive in fighting bike crimes before they happen.
E.g., bait bikes and other sting operations. Meth heads will ruin this city. We need to stop being victims here. We’re getting trampled on.
If I had more time, I’d just go rogue and set up bait bikes around town myself.
It’s hard with an ineffective city government. Adams and Leonard finally leavings are a start.
Or, and I say this as a dedicated cyclicst, there are bigger issues to set up sting operations on… it’s bike theft, for chrissakes, not the meth lab itself.
This is a simplistic reply to crime and the forces behind crime. Criminals don’t stick to one crime. A murderer doesn’t just murder. A drug dealer doesn’t just deal drugs. An ID thief doesn’t just steal people’s IDs.
Bikes are the currency of the street. Their trade and monetary fuels lots of crime in the city.
NYC learned that addressing the small things had a profound impact on much larger crimes.
Crime, like healthcare, needs to be holistic. Everything’s interconnected.
http://www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adventure/biking/Who-Pinched-My-Ride.html
Wow, that Craigslist post is way off the sketch-meter. Anyone going for that has to know exactly what they are getting into.
Like potentially getting mugged for the cash they insist that you show them before they’ll show you their ill gotten gains?
Sounds to me like that craigslist ad is a prime opportunity for the police to do an undercover bust! If they need someone to volunteer as a potential buyer to take a look around I would be more than happy to. Heck, I’d even be willing to flash my own cash to get in the door.
No way I would do that without a squad of Portland’s finest to back me up.
Please please please PBOT update your outdated and defective bike rack standards to provide a secondary level of protection when the few bolts are defeated:
1) use only stable style racks with a cross bar (vs. open ended racks in use)
2) squared tubing (vs. round tubing)
3) 3 or 4 bolt flange mounts (vs. 2 bolt)
*) in ground installation (vs. flange mount) – only as a last resort
And Portland citizens / workers / shoppers…please do call PBoT to report any very old racks with only conventional nuts or bolts…so they can be welded closed or replaced. These tend to be the pre-blue racks.
Spelling correction: staple (not stable) racks in my post.
Why’s that? Isn’t wall thickness a bigger factor than shape as far as strength and cut resistance?
Round tubing can be cut with a pipe cutter nearly silently, square tubing requires a saw that makes noise or requires obvious hand and arm movements to perform.
Oh, that makes sense. How about the ‘in-ground only as a last resort?’
I agree. PBOT are pretty good about responding to things like broken or defective or just wobbly bike racks. Give them a call, and they will generally try to send somebody from their maintenance department out to fix it!
That could be a fake ad, have you called the number to verify he’s even selling bikes? Else you are just helping harrass the guy.
Not too classy.
Helping to harass someone that put up a fake ad? Why would that matter?
The idea is posting a fake ad that includes the phone number of another person you hope gets harrassed, who knows nothing of the posting.
Did a little googling of that phone number. The owner shows up on pdxmugshots.com, but no theft charges listed.
Apparently busted for trashing a McDonalds after he found onions on his burger. He doesn’t like onions.
I’m going to offer a contrary perspective on that Craigslist ad.
I’m not convinced he is hoping to sell stolen bikes. Craigslist sellers have all kinds of funny attitudes about who they wish to entertain. I may not like their tone or attitude but to me gruff wording of the ad doesn’t automatically suggests stolen merchandise. He could have stolen all those bikes, but he did provide a phone number which is a whole lot more info than many ads provide, and he’s offering service on your bike, so won’t mind if you hang around/come back. Unless you’re speculating that the phone is also stolen it isn’t that hard to look up the number using one of those reverse lookup services. Besides if he isn’t even listing individual bikes he can’t meet you at the 7-Eleven since you presumably need to look over what he’s got.
I am well aware that a lot of people (here) are convinced that Craigslist is full of thieves, but I do a fair amount of business on CL and will say that in my experience the sketchy characters are few and far between. I’ve *very* rarely felt that a seller (of bikes or bike parts) was fencing anything. Let’s not let our imaginations run too wild here.
Just a correction (but an important one in my opinion): The person isn’t offering to service the bike. They state that all the bikes are “recently serviced/rebuilt”. If they really was offering to service the bike before you rode it, and you could hang around while they did so, I would be less skeptical.
Read it again. He says:
“Service for your bike available too”
Here’s the ad: http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/bik/3482799151.html
I see now that there are several versions of his ad floating around. So be it. Also not uncommon.
My grandpa in the ’90s had a backyard full of bikes, and cars/trucks. Definitely not a tweaker / bike theif. He would collect bikes from bike shops that they deemed not worth fixing, and fix them up himself, to fill up a schoolbus with and drive down to Belize to sell.
A pile of said bikes in the upper-left corner of this pic:
http://www.reocities.com/Area51/hollow/8891/oldpic2.jpg
Though he had well over 100 bikes lying around.
Not the old “Bike King” on 136th and ?Rhone? .. ? That guy had some serious bikes.
@9watts
Oh wow, you really are naive. He has “too many bikes to list” and has an area code from Los Angeles. Nah, this is totally a legit posting.
Even if I had 50 bikes to sell online, I’d list the brand of them and maybe a color. That’s not even difficult to do.
I have to say, most people in Portland are street un-savvy.
Personally, people should avoid CL all together when buying bikes.
Thanks for your opinion.
I know plenty of people (who aren’t thieves) with out of town/state area codes, and I also know folks (who aren’t thieves) who have collected lots of bikes they’re interested in selling. His choice of how terse to make his ad, what to leave off, is not even close to enough for me to indict him.
Sure 80 bikes is a lot of bikes, but if I were so inclined I could fairly easily buy up that many bikes cheap on Craigslist for the purpose of fixing them up and reselling them at a (small) profit. I’m not suggesting I’d buy from him, or that there is no chance he has done what you and others suspect, but I see nothing in his ad that convinces me of it either.
Well, thanks for your opinion too! At least my opinion lacks naivete.
what i lack in naivete i make up in cynicism
Not to mention condescension.
Out-of-town area code is no longer a much of a red flag. Use a cell phone, move, keep your number, and there you go. I’m pretty sure that’s what’s going to happen to my kids, and if I ever move it will happen to me.
Earlier (yesterday) version of the ad specifies “80 freshly tuned bikes”
http://portland.craigslist.org/mlt/bik/3482799151.html
That phone number comes up related to scams going years back (link).
He also spells out his phone number in different ways in postings under multiple craigslist categories (CB radios, RC toys), but Google treats them all the same…
https://www.google.com/search?&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&hs=Yno&tbo=d&sclient=psy-ab&q=craigslist+%22323-327-8719%22
I should have said “alleged scams”.
If the person selling these bikes is the same person pointed out in that radio-scam BB posting, it is the same person from this news story:
“Oregon man throws soda, smashes cash register over onions on Mcdonald’s burger”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/jayme-john-leon-mcfury-onion_n_1914789.html
Just sayin’.
Ha, I saw a guy throw his burger at the cashier in McDonald’s in Hollywood years ago. Over onions or pickles, can’t remember which.
CAUTION: If he IS the same guy mentioned in that CB radio story, BEWARE the Google results show multiple cases of him acting out violently, harassing, menacing, etc. I don’t think anybody should try to “sting” or otherwise confront or accuse him without the police being right there to back you up.
Craigslist is a great way to see that your used stuff gets traded for something you need and goes to someone who needs it. Reduce-reuse-recycle.
It is not that hard to spot a questionable deal. Too good to be true, selling it for a friend, or will not provide serial number, name and address. Remeber if you buy stolen stuff, you are also a criminal and a theif.
“Remeber if you buy stolen stuff, you are also a criminal and a theif.”
Can you elaborate? I have a hard time believing that.
If intent matters so much in how people driving into or over others are prosecuted surely it is going to matter in a situation like you are describing. I could easily imagine that you’d end up forfeiting the merchandise if it was found to have been stolen, but you’re asserting a lot more than that.
So if someone buys a stolen gun, or a gun through inappropriate means, it’s okay?
It’s called being an “enabler.” Enablers allow behavior to occur. They are apart of the problem.
Is everything black or white in your world?
All I said was that it is conceivable that someone might buy a piece of stolen property and not know it (perhaps even have no way of knowing it), and that what Tim said could hardly apply in that case.
Are you distinguishing between buying something from a thief and buying something from the person the thief sold/gave it to?
No, the world isn’t black and white. Yeah, of course it might be legitimate. It also might not rain tomorrow, but I’m still going to bring a rain jacket with me.
Something strongly tells me, and every other discerning person, that his cache of bikes might not be 100% his, either through people selling him stolen bikes, or the ad person stealing bikes himself.
Just like that bike repair shop in downtown Portland that used to take in any bike off the street and resell it. This CL ad wreaks. Don’t be fooled by facades like “bike mechanic.”
Well, guns are a bad example because their sale is regulated somewhat. I could illegally buy a gun from someone who was the legit owner. But if I buy a Hello Kitty ™ lunchbox from someone on CL, how would I ever know whether it was stolen or not?
…So are the selling of used bikes, that’s why I used guns as an example. A used bike store can’t just take in used bikes off the street and sell them immediately. There’s regulation of them to a degree.
The specific charge is receiving stolen property. And really if you buy (for instance) a Hufnagel for a couple hundred you are either completely clueless or you know something is fishy but you don’t care and are hoping not to get caught.
You can get bikes very cheap at Police Auctions. You can buy them for 50 cents a pound from Community Cycling Center on Sundays. In this city you can dumpster them or ask around/place an ad and get them for free.
Not everyone has awesome English writing skills or knows what every brand and model of bike is worth. Sometimes someone can have a gem and not know it, to them it is just an old bike. If you get a weird vibe from someone selling a cheap bike, run the serial number.
If you don’t have good title you can’t convey good title, so if you’re a buyer of stolen merchandise, knowingly or unknowingly you have no legal claim to it if you’re caught with it.
Susan! Drop me a line, I have a spare specialized I would give ya.
Craigslist is a great way to see that your stolen stuff gets traded for something a thief “needs” (money) and goes to someone who doesn’t need it.
Someone go and check his bikes out!!
I like the bikeracks that are actually embedded in concrete, as opposed to screwed down.
I think the best thing you can do, is make sure you lock not only the frame, but also through one (or heck, both) of your wheels when locking to the bikerack.
If the thief does unscrew the rack, the smaller amount of wiggle space available with the lock due to it being locked around more things might result in there not being enough free maneuver-room to slide it off the end of the unbolted rack.
Also, if you lock through the frame and wheel, even if the thief does manage to slide your bike off – it is still locked to itself – another deterrent of sorts.
First off I am sorry that Susan lost her bike.
As to the CL seller- unless the person wants to go out there and actually look at some bikes and run some numbers, I think that psoting their personal info in relation to a crime for which the poster has exactly zero proof that they are connected to is pretty much BS.
Either call the guy, run the numbers and call the cops or STFU.
Susan didn’t lose one of her bikes, Asta did.
they need to increased the toughness of these racks. My idea is to fill them with wire rope. I was amazed by how fast I can cut through a 2″x1/4″ thick square steel tube when I was making something a while back. Round tubing does cut considerably faster, but I’m not sure I believe a tubing cutter is sufficient for that. All the cut racks I have seen pictures of have obviously been cut by a saw. Of course, your bike has to be worth more than $5 to someone because the blade I was using was shot after a couple of cuts.
Cordless 18v angle grinder with diamond wheel lasts longer.
Wire rope, plus a pebbly concrete aggregate. Bonus if you could get carbide for your pebbles, but that would cost too much.
Fill them with gravel
Sooooo, was the staple rack screwed before?
No offense— but to call the CL guy a thief is kind of jumping to a pretty big conclusion. A little over a year ago I started fixing up bikes and reselling them mostly as a hobby and to fund upgrading and restoring my personal bikes. I love to wrench almost as much as I like to ride, and also learning the history of industry and the tool.
Once word gets out that you’ve taken this hobby up to even just a few people, they start giving you their bikes when they’re cleaning out the garage, storage unit, or like one of my neighbors who has a number of rental units abandoned bikes left behind.
I currently got about 10 bikes in my garage in various states of repair and I’ve only paid (very little) for perhaps 3 or 4. The others were donated by neighbors and friends who I know didn’t steal them. And I could easily have had many more, but I kind of specialize in bike boom bikes and bar cruisers. So unless it’s something I can sell quickly without much work I pass on MT bikes and big box bikes.
And of course for every sale I make, those people may very well come back to give or cheaply sell a bike to me knowing I’ll fix it up and put it under someones butt rather than letting it land in the scrap yard.
I think it’s important for many of you to remember that most bikes are bought, then seldom ridden. They are then just in the way for most people once they’ve lost the “the bug”. It’s not hard to find exceptionally cheap bikes or even free bikes. The vast majority of them aren’t stolen just neglected.
Of course I do keep an eye out on the stolen lists, and I also check on any bike I might buy at yard sales and over CL. But I’ve yet to ever find a reported bike or even encounter anyone suspicious.
If I have one major complaint about this blog/site. It’s that many here are too quick to judge a “thief” when there is not a single bit of evidence that they are. Acting weird and bike hording doesn’t make a thief, stealing does.
If I have one major complaint about this blog/site. It’s that many here are too quick to judge a “thief” when there is not a single bit of evidence that they are. Acting weird and bike hording doesn’t make a thief, stealing does.
Beautifully said, gutterbunny. Thanks.
I don’t kn ow if anyone else posted this already but that phone number belongs to the crazy “mcfury” guy. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/09/26/jayme-john-leon-mcfury-onion_n_1914789.html
NM someone obviously beat me to it.
There are security bolts that has a 2 part head on it, the outside head snaps off at a certain torque and the remaining part of the bolt is difficult to unscrew.
Ditto, I’d be happy to volunteer for this type of thing. But then of course, it’d probably better for all society if we started resolving some of these problems at the root, like fixing the parents/family/shit situation these idiots that become thieves are raised in. But either way, I’d volunteer to help where I could.
Hi, I know this is an old post but found this through a craigslist ad today regarding a possible craigslist scammer. This # looked familiar so I searched it in my e-mail box and it turns out I did get an e-mail from someone with the phone # listed in the ad. His name is ****deleted by moderator***. He tried to lowball me for my bike a year ago and offered me lots of random things to trade. Just wanted to share!
An update to anyone still following this thread:
The man who made the Craigslist post I published in this story has contacted me. He says he has never stolen a bike and that he runs a legitimate business refurbishing used bikes and selling them online. He is now very upset and says BikePortland has caused him to lose business and be falsely accused of several thefts.
FWIW, I reprinted the CL ad verbatim without the man’s name and then his name was brought up here in the comments. I regret any harm done to him or his business.
I have edited the story to remove the reference to his business phone number and his name.
You fucking people are outrageous!
You jump to conclusions, you make false accusations, and help ruin a persons reputation just because you can! How fucking pathetic!
For all your informational purposes, though I shouldn’t have to explain myself to a bunch of asshole AMERICANS, I shall for the sake of argument.
I am that guy you are all talking shit about ! Could it be that I’m an actual bike mechanic with over 200 LEGIT BIKES, trying to make an honest living at home because I’m partially physically challenged due to a previous motorcycle accident , thus limiting what I can do for work? Could it be my love of bikes and mechanic aptitude could be used for PRODUCTIVE WORK AND INCOME????
Maybe has something to due with the fact I live ( used to but not anymore because of this type of CONSTANT BULLSHIT) in the “Bike capital in the World” and there are literally thousands of unused and dysfunctional bike out there for sale or free.
I take a lot of pride in what I do and how I do it. And I also take pride in knowing that before I take ANY bike ( even ones donated to me by neighbors!) I do a background check on it to make sure it’s not somebody else’s. And I repeat to all you fucking haters out there: I have NEVER stolen a bike or been involved in any type of illegal, or immoral , transactions involving bikes or anything else.
I have been involved with repairing , restoring , and selling bikes from the 50’s to the present for about 35 yrs now , and very disappointed in all the bullshit I read in here from people that apparently have nothing better to do with their time than to sit around judging people they know nothing about and act like they are the REAL AUTHORITY on the subject.
I am a legitimate mechanic and business man and shouldn’t have to waste my time explaining myself to a bunch of pansies asses sitting back trying to PLAY GOD!! When I have a collection of that size and caliber, you should understand why I can’t list them all. But the narrow minded idiots can’t understand that.
And for all you morons: why would I wait for you to pick out a bike AND THEN refurbish it in front of you?? So you could watch me for a few hours, thus wasting your time and making the transaction take longer??
I won’t adress any other issues here, because that’s the issue here, right now!! But for all you people that sit out there and judge someone you’ve never even met, and act like you’re perfect and have never made a mistake in your life, can go to hell!! Who the fuck do you think you are?? Really??? And to get on a public forum and put it out there for everyone to read shows you’re nothing but a judgemental lowlife!!!!
I have even rebuilt bikes and have given them away to someone that really needed transportation but had no dough !! That’s the kind of person YOU are sitting there judging!
This is why I no longer live in Portland ! I’m sick of all the haters , bike thieves, and general bullshit like this when I’m doing my best to be an honest , productive citizen that still takes pride in what I do and how I do it!
And for all you haters out there: go fuck yourself!
( PS-it’s none of your business why I have an out of state area code but some of you act as if that’s a dead give away and proves I’m a criminal)
And did any of you lowlifes get off your asses and come over TO MY HOME to check anything out???
Thanks for helping to destroy a great thing. Hope you now will have to go to a Portland bike shop, and really get ripped off !! Then you might have something to whine about!
And thank you to ALL the open minded people out there that still believe in condemning evidence BEFORE ANY JUDGEMENT IS MADE !
What happened to “ Innocent until proven Guilty”?????
I’ve done absolutely nothing wrong!!
And you wonder why I’m bitter???
Haha.
Re-reading the comments now is rather amusing. I will point out that I gave our Craigslist friend the benefit of the doubt in the (2012) comments above and got an earful of abuse for it. Lots of rushing to judgment here.