What Happens to Stolen Bicycles? • Hacker News Board

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#201

Post by dimitar » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:49 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #133

frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

Not in Vancouver or even on the new continent, but http://translate.google.nl/translate?sl=nl&tl=en&u=h... shows an arrest from the Dutch supreme court on bait bicycles ("lokfietsen") that shows the method gets used.

The Netherlands seems to be a good place look if there are any solutions - they have a huge percentage of people using bicycles in their cities.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#202

Post by akkartik » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:50 PM UTC

kcl wrote: post #163

markbnine wrote: post #47

If Goldman Sachs didn’t have more profitable market inefficencies to exploit, they might be out there arbitraging stolen bikes. Funny how no explanation is needed for this line. Goldman Sachs (and hence, Wall Street) is now the poster child for risk-free crime.

It's a curious line, and while when I read it I let it pass with conditional assent, I now think it's incorrect. Wall Street has poorer-than-usual ethics, and does commit crimes for profit, but in general it is wary of the legal system. Wall Street tends not to exploit opportunities that run afoul of the legal system, even when they are risk-adjusted comparable to other opportunities. They would rather make money leg…

The point of grandparent was precisely that you let it pass on a first reading. It doesn't matter whether it's true, it's a huge image shift.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#203

Post by vitalique » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:52 PM UTC

buffportion wrote: post #178

DannoHung wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about a pressurized U-lock that releases a neon-pink paint cloud if the cylinder or restraining bar is cut-through? I guess the trick would be making it get on the thief and all over the bicycle. The best would be if it also stank to high heaven.

That's great, until you lose your key

Really? Wrap it up with a newspaper and do whatever those bad guys usually do to the U-locks. Just make sure it's your bike.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#204

Post by tadfisher » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:55 PM UTC

kisielk wrote: post #147

ljf wrote: post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most (all?) bikes have a serial number stamped on the bottom of the 'bottom bracket' the part that the pedals go into. These serial numbers are unique per bike brand, but not universally unique. The serial is pretty hard to remove, without it's removal being obvious to anyone that looks, though the brand can be removed or changed - if that happens the serial wouldn't show as stolen. If there was a lookup for serials…

My fiance's bike was stolen a few months ago. By coincidence someone who was a friend of a friend of her's ended up buying it off of craigslist. We discovered this when he arrived at a BBQ riding her bike. When we asked about the details of his purchase, he sent us all the email correspondance with the bike thief. The thief had actually given him the serial number of the bike, which he checked in the online police da…

Motor vehicle VINs in North America use a check digit to detect VIN errors, which consequently makes it hard to modify a VIN without failing checks at time of purchase (such as when the VIN is looked up via CarFax or at the DMV). It's not cryptographically "hard" to modify it, but additional check digits up the difficulty (like appending a hash to the plaintext serial number).

The OCR-A character set used in the MICR numbers on checks makes it easy to spot a modification like the one in your story.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#205

Post by tylee78 » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:55 PM UTC

spacemanaki wrote: post #188

dmm wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US also has a lot of crime. More people need to be in prison.

Care to back that up? Does the US really have that much more crime that justifies locking up more people? Recent stuff I've read on this agrees with Cass ( http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2012/01/30/120... ).

compared to Germany the percentage of criminals seems the same - it's just that our criminals are on the streets, yours in prison.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#206

Post by tkresident » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:57 PM UTC

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #180

frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. Or just plain old boring regular enforcement, like Germany and Japan have, which is how they end up with a far lower crime rate than the US or the UK for example. (They also have a better social safety net, that's part of their low crime rates too.)

Having had two regular bicycles stolen over ten years in Tokyo, I would disagree that the problem is non-existent in Japan, though street crime is indeed relatively rare. Bicycles are commonly used by the majority of people. Authorities need staff dedicated to keeping streets near stations from getting clogged up with secured bikes. An unsecured bicycle near a station might be used as a free ride home by a drunken salaryman, but rarely stolen as a cash generator I guess. No social safety net really exists in Japan. Yet in general, Japanese would not even consider crime when in financial dire straits. I don't believe this has as much to do with enforcement as acute social awareness.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#207

Post by pmahoney » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:57 PM UTC

davidw wrote: post #174

frankus wrote: post #81

Bike theft seems like one of those quality-of-life crimes (like graffiti and coercive squeegee-monkeys) that's begging for some kind of creative enforcement strategy. - If there's an open-air bike market at 7th and Market, it seems like you could use some of the same strategies that have been used to shut down open-air drug markets. - Police in the greater Vancouver area have had a lot of success with bait cars, but…

I heard a story, but I have no idea whether it's true: bike shop in San Francisco leaves very shiny, high end bike outside. Thief hops on bike, heads down hill to make a quick getaway. Thief soon discovers that the bicycle's brake cables are not connected. CRASH.

I believe that it's illegal to booby-trap one's house, and I've heard of (apocryphal?) cases of burglars suing homeowners for injuries sustained during a burglary...

I imagine such a brake-less bike would fall in that category.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#208

Post by at-fates-hands » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 9:58 PM UTC

The one thing I would've liked to see was the age breakdown of the offenders. I remember vividly in junior high there was a kid who stole BMX bikes, soldered off the serial number and then re-sold them for around $300 a piece. He got to be like a professional car thief in that he would take requests if someone wanted something specific.

It was a very lucrative side business for a 12 year old kid.

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#209

Post by stbtrax » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 10:01 PM UTC

DenisM wrote: post #195

buffportion wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's great, until you lose your key

That argument applies to any effective antitheft device. Shall we take it you're against all effective antitheft devices in general?

If you lose your key to your U-Lock, you cut it off. If you lose the key to your frame... saw your bike in half?

Re: What Happens to Stolen Bicycles?

#210

Post by juan_juarez » Tue, Aug 28, 2012, 10:11 PM UTC

Jun8 wrote: post #55

I think a useful tactic to curb loss of expensive bikes would be to legally target the people who buy them, these are the people that cause the market to exist and perpetuate the situation. My guess is that most of these people are not crooks, i.e. they are just young people who want to but can't afford a nice bike and they know exactly what they are buying. I don't understand anything about bikes so can't give an ex…

> Tangentially, and pardon my ignorance, I'm not a biker: I can't understand people who shell out thousands of dollars for a bike, are these so much better than a $500 one?

Think about one thing you're passionate about. There's going to be products that are good enough for the casual, every-day user and there's going to be premium goods, even if there's a decreasing price/performance ratio. Since we're on HN, I feel safe talking about computers.

Compare the $1000 3.9GHz i7 from Intel and the $500 3.8GHz version. Do some people need the minor performance increase enough to pay for it? Sure. Enough to create a market? Nope. It's people wanting to buy things just to show they can pay for it.