Begin forwarded message:
From: Mara Hincher <mara_hinc...@me.com>
Date: May 22, 2015 10:12:14 AM EDT
Subject: [TotLot] BIKE THEFT! And some advice.
Yesterday, at around 4:45am, someone ripped off our bike. It was
secured to a wrought iron porch railing with a U-Lock, on a lighted
porch, and the thief used a handheld power saw to saw the metal
railing off to get the bike. It took about a minute, and a neighbor
who heard the railing snap, looked out and saw the guy walking off
carrying the bike (because the U-Lock was still on it) east up
Catharine St towards 50th & Cedar Park. The neighbor called 911, and
the police came and took a report about 5am, but they were not
optimistic we would get the bike back. I left flyers at a few bike
shops, went to a few chop shops, and everyone gave me advice on bikes.
Additionally, while I was out, I passed by a teenager with a silver
& green bike with straight handles, who was trying to sell it to
another teenager for $5. It was obviously stolen, but it was not our
bike.
I listed the bike on Cedar Park Neighbors, and on the Philadelphia
Stolen Bikes FB pages, and I did a separate post about the silver
and green bike.
Our bike was a KHS Urban Xpress with straight handles, a matte black
finish, and a bike rack on the back with large black saddlebag
panniers with orange trim.
A little earlier, at 4am, someone up on Osage had the same thing
happen, only they had a wood railing. It could have been the same
thief, or it could have been part of a crew, because these were all
done very professionally. There were a lot of thefts Thursday night
in the wee hours.
Advice from my hike around West Philly yesterday:
1. Bikes attached to wooden porches or metal railings are not
secure. Consider taking them indoors or secure them to something
that can't be broken or cut though. Professional bike thieves often
have industrial cutters, handheld power tools, and saws. They can
cut anything, even a U-Lock, with the right tools. Even if you use
extra locks or cables, an accomplished thief will only be delayed
slightly.
2. There are lowjacks for bikes. They're tiny and easily concealable.
3. Scratch something identifiable somewhere on the bike in a not
obvious location, to help identify the bike later. The best thing is
to remove the handles and scratch your information there, then
replace the handles.
4. Keep a good photo of your bike, as well as serial numbers of your
bike and accessories, and any stickers or markings that make it easy
to identify. If you have to talk to the police at 5am, you may be
upset or not be awake enough to give them all the information, and
having it on a sheet to hand them makes it easy.
5. Join the Philadelphia Stolen Bikes Facebook group. It has over
3000 members, and is dedicated to bike recovery.
6. Join the Philadelphia Bicycle Coalition. http://
bicyclecoalition.org
7. Once a bike is stolen, it may actually change hands several times
very quickly. Thieves usually don't bother going to a shop, they'll
just sell it on the street and before a day has gone by, it may be
in another city.
8. Sometimes, the stolen bikes are taken apart and sold for parts
only, to further complicate recovery.
9. In some cases, you can register your bike (before it's taken)
with your city, or with an org like the National Bike Registry (http://www.nationalbikeregistry.com
).
10. The odds of recovering your bike are almost nothing.
Unfortunately, there is an annual uptick in crime that starts this
time of year and can persist through the summer. Please be careful,
and we'll all try to watch out for our neighbors.
Here is a good article on bike safety:
http://simplisafe.com/blog/bike-theft-prevention-tips
