Year: 2013

PPB cleaning up a stolen bike ring in
Old Town back in July.
(Photo © J. Maus/BikePortland)

Among the many disturbing bike theft trends I hear about these days are the growing number of allegations about “chop shops” or organized bike theft rings. I’ve been flagging reader emails about these for several months now. Below are a few examples of what I’ve heard just since this past July…

Reader Carmen R.:

I work off Front Ave over by the Fremont Bridge.

For some time now we have been documenting what we believe to be a bike theft ring. A very amateur video has been taken (not much clarity) and calls have been made to the police. The police show up 20 or so minutes or so later, walk around the premises we’ve identified and pretty much just drive away. This is very disheartening to me as I commute daily and have 3 bikes stolen over the years.

What happens is a guy rides up across the street handling another bike, rides over to the storage and/or freight containers across the street. Said bike disappears inside. They have this area very secure and boarded up. Only once do we feel we saw an exchange go down with a pick-up retrieving some bikes from the vicinity. We have not been quick enough to photograph this and it would seem pretty obvious if we pursued them out right.

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Still from Kevin Collier’s video.
-Watch it below-

Last week the Portland police arrested Robert Charles Dady, who they referred to as a “prolific bicycle thief.” We now know more details about one piece of the case that helped make that arrest possible.

Kevin Collier was one of Dady’s victims. His bike was stolen on the night of July 25th from right out in front of 24HR Fitness in the Pearl District. Collier did not take the theft lying down. He committed himself to catching the person responsible. And one week later, he did. As it turned out, his bike was stolen by a team that included Dady (who Collier refers to as “Santa Claus”) and another man.

Here’s Collier’s story of how he helped lead the Portland police to this notorious bike thief.

“I had my bike stolen from the Pearl 24 HR Fitness on July 25th where it was locked up in the bike parking area close to the front door. I filed an online Portland Police Bureau report, a 24 Hour Fitness incident report, and I started checking Craig’s List the next day. I also began analyzing biking patterns of every rider that I saw, taking in information, and eye-balling if my bike was on the streets.

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