A man who broke into bicycle storage rooms of Portland apartment buildings 11 times was sentenced to 50 months in prison. In a Multnomah County courtroom today, Christopher McGinnis pled guilty to six counts of Burglary in the First Degree and two counts of Theft in the First Degree.
In addition to the four years and two months of prison, McGinnis will be subject to three years of post-prison supervision.
“Portland is a world-class biking city and the Burglary Task Force intends to keep it that way. People who break into buildings to steal bicycles will be prosecuted and held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.”
According to the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office, of the prosecutors in the case had this to say after today’s sentencing:
According to the Portland Police Bureau, McGinnis used a crow bar to pry open the doors to bike rooms at apartment buildings. He targeted bicycles at three specific buildings and hit them a combined total of 11 times between June 2005 and September 2025. The buildings he broke into includel; The Frankie Apartments and Memoir Buckman in Southeast, and The Cosmopolitan in Northwest. McGinnis was arrested on September 19th, 2025.
Bike storage facilities in apartment buildings have a very notorious record of security. Some bike theft prevention experts say to avoid them entirely given how easily they can be compromised.
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I wonder how many of the stolen bikes were locked up in the storage rooms. I lock my bike inside my locked garage. If somebody is going to steal it they at least have to carry it.
* Shaking my head: I took a quick look at public photos of one of the “secure” bike rooms of the 3 buildings mentioned in this article – and in one room it looks like the majority of the bikes were unlocked by their owners AND I could not see how the room was secured – thus may only be general area security, so all users have access vs just registered cyclists.
Ya I used to peruse the bikeindex reports of thefts in the city when there was a map of them on bikeportland and a significant number were bikes that were not locked up in out of the way places like bike rooms, porches, garages, sheds, or cars.
All my bikes are locked up indoors. People like to poke around and grab shit that isn’t tied down here.
What happened after he broke in? Did he clean them out? How did that work- did he have a uhaul and accomplices? How/where did he sell them?
I lost a beloved bike out of bike room. The room was in a “secure” parking garage of our building, in a locked bike room, and u-locked toa staple. Someone got in a cleaned the room out of all the bikes- probably 30-40 bikes. I also wanted to know how that worked and what happened to those bikes. In this case, it would interesting to know if this was a lone agent or if he was part of larger operation to steal and sell stolen property
Tbh this sort of story is what makes me want to put bars on the windows and use security screen doors. I’ve never had my place broken into, but I can imagine the feelings of violation and insecurity that would follow. After all, there’s little security which is impervious to determined thieves, but you can make your things the less attractive option compared to what’s nearby. Not that you should have to, or feel like it’s necessary.
Some years ago I lost a Brooks and a seat post secured with a hex bolt. My bike now features a length of chain encased in old tube which goes through the rails of the saddle and the back stays, and I’ve yet to lose another.
Speaking from past experience [coast to coast bike facility design and parking operations]: Yes, that is always the issue: how secure are the rooms (keeping ‘bad’ people out); how well are the racks designed to secure a locked bike (is it easier to cut the rack or the lock?); and owner behavior (do they even lock their bikes*, let alone lock it effectively?).
Most city bike parking codes are silent on room security and many architects / parking garage designers are undereducated about secure bike parking details. And even if the stars are aligned: city code requiring a sizable secure bike parking room, developer / development team is interested ($ and consulting) in providing a secure bike parking room…the last weak link can be created as bike parking is often the “last decision” in laying out space and access in a project…thus it is placed in the least valuable / least visible space that can undermine CPTED / eyes on the street general security.
*A lot of people just do not bother to lock, even in semi public parking spaces.
This should be less of an issue moving forward, since Portland greatly reduced the need to provide bike rooms in new development. Fewer bike rooms, fewer bike riders, less bike theft.
Jonathan, would you post the judge’s ruling on BP or at least a link to it? It may help to educate the general public and chastise the building management / designers at a minimum.
Crikey, mate — turns out if you actually prosecute bike thieves, the bikes start stayin’ where they’re parked. Who knew?
Big cheers to Nathan Vasquez and the crew for rememberin’ that in a proper world-class bike city like Portland, the only thing that should be riding off into the sunset is the cyclist — not some drongo who’s just nicked a carbon frame.
Love the energy: “held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.” That’s the kind of sentence that makes a bike rack feel safe at night.
Guess when you’ve got a Burglary Task Force actually task-forcin’, even the boldest shed-raider starts thinkin’, “Yeah… nah.”
is there a way to find the full list of appartments and dates he broke in? my bike got stolen from such storage 2 years ago in SE…