Sweden, Uppsala, Main station... or at least thats how it looked like last time i visited
Where do stolen bikes go?
231–240 of 307 posts
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#232Earlier quoted context omitted.
True but it requires heavy tooling and more time. Most robbers want cheap shots.
this is patently not true. maybe titanium is gummy enough to give one trouble? but any steel that isn't brittle enough to shatter when you look at it is going to be trivial to cut with an abrasive disk and a battery powered grinder. if the chain is 1/2" instead of 1/4", it will take an extra minute maybe.
There are now d-locks that are angle grinder resistant. The reviews I've read suggest they need two cuts to open and each cut uses a full angle grinder disc.
As ever, impossible to stop a determined thief, but starting to get "good enough".
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#233Once I lost a bike that was parked right outside my house. Couple of days later I saw a guy ride around on my bike! I sprinted over and somewhat aggressively yelled "you're on my bike, buddy!" He got off, very politely handed me back my bike, and thanked me for letting him borrow it. Almost made me feel like I was the bad guy in the situation. Anyway I guess in some cases, a stolen bike doesn't go far at all.
I had a ratty bike in college that I never bothered to lock to the bike racks, because I had bought it very cheaply and I had insufficient money to repair it properly. Almost everything that could be broken while still remaining technically rideable, was broken. One day - gone! I breathed a sigh of relief and went about my day. Two years pass. I'm walking to class one day on the same campus and I see a very similar l…
If it was left unlocked and in poor condition it’s possible someone thought it had simply been abandoned and took it to fix up themselves.
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#234I can't imagine it being worthwhile to take a bike very far unless it is a very expensive bike. If they are normal bikes, you would have to transport them in numbers, and it would be hard to explain it if you got caught. And you would need a van. Best solution: steal local, sell local for fast turnover of minimal stocks. I lost my bike twice in Cambridge: once found it around the corner and another in the police depo…
In Seattle, high end bikes are targeted to be disassembled for components. The components can then easily be fenced for drug money.
Can confirm, there's an RV outside my house right now that has a a giant trailer full of half-chopped up bike frames and parts. They get stuff in and fire up some kind of machinery to grind them apart in the middle of the night. Two RVs down from that is the drug dealer.
It's not just high end bikes. It's everything. Motorcycles and scooters too.
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#235Earlier quoted context omitted.
I did not hear about VanMoof earlier but my buddy called police (Amsterdam area of course) once when he found his bike and he wanted to be good citizen so he did not want to just steal it back from some backyard. Well police helped him recover the bike without arresting anyone and told him next time he should just steal it back and don't bother them.
How is taking your own property back being a bad citizen?
If you go to someones backyard and start taking things and they call the police then you are a bad citizen.
Calling cops and doing it with their help covers your ass.
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#236Earlier quoted context omitted.
How is taking your own property back being a bad citizen?
It becomes complicated if the new owner has legitimately bought the bike in a second hand store.
It's not that complicated, legally speaking. The rightful owner gets to get their stuff back, and the new "owner" has a claim against the purveyor of stolen goods for the purchase price.
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#237Once I lost a bike that was parked right outside my house. Couple of days later I saw a guy ride around on my bike! I sprinted over and somewhat aggressively yelled "you're on my bike, buddy!" He got off, very politely handed me back my bike, and thanked me for letting him borrow it. Almost made me feel like I was the bad guy in the situation. Anyway I guess in some cases, a stolen bike doesn't go far at all.
> "buddy"
> politely handed me back my bike
Canada?
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#238I had a £2,000 electric bike stolen in Oxford. No worries - it had a GPS tracker, and I could see it heading to Birmingham up the M40. Also, my neighbour had CCTV footage. You couldn't make out the faces or number-plate, but you could see it was a black Mercedes. It was taken at about 3AM. So they had "liberated" the bike (it was locked up), and immediately headed out of town. I'm sure it was scouted, then they came…
I heard from a friend in Cambridge that thieves would often spend a few days in Cambridge just hoovering up students' unlocked bikes into a van, then drive over to Oxford and sell them for cheap.
Then while in Oxford they'd spend a few days hoovering up students' unlocked bikes into a van, then drive over to Cambridge...
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#239Earlier quoted context omitted.
It already is rising, with all the false positives and prejudice induced mistakes you would expect. A Kenyan I know said vigilantism there relies on setting up bait for thieves and having multiple members of the community lie in wait. The thief that takes the bait is caught red handed, beaten severely, and often doused in petrol and burned alive. I said I was sure that probably kept theft pretty low, and he replied i…
Which is why it's more effective to provide proper social safety net programs, work to provide economic opportunity, treat the criminal justice system and detention as rehabilitation, not punishment - and at the very least not have systems that encourage further economic stratification and the concentration of wealth. US states with the death penalty have significantly higher murder rates than those without...
We do all of those things in Scandinavia. Bike theft is everywhere, and the police just tell you to report the crime via online self-serve.
Re: Where do stolen bikes go?
#240Earlier quoted context omitted.
AND limit future thefts by the same people, and likely dissuade future thieves.
If you put the bike thieves in jail, sure. And when your e-bike gets stolen, you may well think you want them in jail. But the next week, the New York Times writes an article about how there are too many non-violent offenders in jail and the incarceration crisis is a national shame. Now the e-bike owner is outraged and wants the thief out of jail. It's not trivial to come up with a punishment that will deter the thie…
I don't think it's even about putting them in jail for a long time. The current situation has basically zero downsides to stealing a bike. You take it, you sell it, you have cash. The police don't care, they won't even investigate.
If the chances of getting caught for this sort of crime were non-zero, even if the repercussions were a heavy fine, it would hopefully make people think twice before getting involved in it.