Interesting blip from Tucson

Intersting blip from: "All Pawnshop Transactions Will Cost A Dollar"

All pawnshops and secondhand dealers must electronically report transactions to TPD. Any item with a serial number or owner-applied number must be reported, regardless of value, while any transaction that exceeds $100 must be reported except for furniture, music and books.

Sounds like a promising addition. I'll have to do some research and see what databases these are talking to.

Damnit Portland, SF is on the ball - why aren't you?

From SFPD, Bike Coalition Teaming Up To Track Down Thieves:

Bike thieves, beware. The next time you ride off into the sunset with that new ten-speed Schwinn, the boys in blue might be on your tail.

Although the San Francisco Police Department has come under fire regarding many issues lately, a new anti-theft plan hopes to quell gripes about them being soft on bike burglars. That's because the Department will be teaming up with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition to conduct a sting operation with the hopes of tracking down criminals who steal bikes and peddle them online.

"It's very preliminary at this time, but it's basically bike thieves beware because if they steal a bike in this city, it will probably be tracked," said Officer Albie Esparza.

The sting operation pilot program will begin later this summer and will target the Richmond district, according to Esparza. A decoy bike will be set up with a transmitter and once it is stolen, police will be able to track the bike to the person in possession of it. The SFPD will also continue keeping an eye out for stolen bicycles on Craiglist and in Bay Area pawn shops.

NYT just did a piece on this, SF's got theirs in the works -- do you hear me Portland? Get on with it - you're supposed to be the uber-bike town, so act like it already. Get a bait bike program up and running.

"Efforts on Bicycling Also Attract Thieves" in the NYT

Quick blip about the arms race between bicyclists and bike thieves in the NYT's "Efforts on Bicycling Also Attract Thieves"

As cyclists from New York to San Francisco take advantage of new commuting infrastructure, thieves appear to be taking a growing interest in two-wheeled travel as well, riders and advocates report. The response by some cities and local law enforcement agencies has been a kind of high-tech cat-and-mouse game, one involving bait bikes and radio trackers as well as social media Web sites.

... “It’s a lot like the drug war,” said Marc Caswell of the San Francisco Bike Coalition, an advocacy group. “We need to get the higher-ups.”

In New York, where the police do keep a record of bicycle thefts, riders have seen about a 35 percent increase in the number of reported thefts in 2010 over the same period last year, according to statistics provided by the police. But the number of reports was small, 519 through May 16, in a city where tens of thousands ride each day.
 
... “When we started, I thought we’d get kids stealing each others’ bikes,” said Sergeant Deluca. “But what we’ve found is that we’ve gotten some pretty heavy-duty criminals.”

In one memorable incident in the spring of 2007, an escapee from Folsom State Prison stole a $3,000 Foes mountain bike that had been left as bait in a supermarket parking lot, locked to the rack of an S.U.V. The system alerted the police, and the prisoner was caught about 15 minutes later, less than an hour after his escape, said Officer Lou Wright of the Folsom Police Department.

Bummer they didn't email me for some info ...

More recovery stories!

I love sharing the recovery stories, here's a quick one from up in Seattle:

06/02/2010 Seattle PD: Can you provide further information about the bike you have listed on Stolen Bike Registry? I have recovered a stolen bike pawned by an individual, who appears to [redacted here, but it's basically about pawn shops and bikes] Also, if you reported the theft to the police, can you please provide a case number.

06/07/2010 Registrant from Seattle: I just got my bike back last night.  Its a little worse for the wear, but at least I got it back. Thank you so much for you website.  The police found me through your site rather then the report I filed with them.

Well that sucks ...

I just approved this poor guy's bike - he's on a cross country bike ride and some asshat just stole his bike and everything on it out of a house in Knoxville, TN:

My bike and every piece of my gear was stolen while I was in Knoxville, Tn on June 5th.
It was taken from an apartment building hallway as I was one floor upstairs with my newly met friends in Knoxville.

I had everything on the bike. EVERYTHING. wallet, ID, camera, tent, sleeping bag, gear, tools, stove, food, clothes, address book. Everything except the clothes I had on at the time and my cell phone that was in my pocket.

I have decided that I will stay here in Knoxville for the time being and search for the bike and/or any kind of new gear that can get me back up and running. I have little money to offer as a reward, but am willing to do any kind of work as payment for helping me find it, or helping me with new gear.
...

Email me at seth@freewheelin.info, message me by clicking here, or call me at 804-543-4220. If you think you can help out in any way at all, please get in contact with me. Thank you!
-Seth.

This, folks, is why I advocate death for bike thieves. You steal a man's ride, that's one thing. But you steal a man's ride with all of his gear on it when he's on an epic cross country bike ride? God will not help you if we ever find you alive ...

Lots of recoveries this week - all over the place

Lots of people recovering their own bikes this week - it is, after all, the high season -  just a quick recap:

Seattle: Went around to pawnshops this morning after met with an officer, and dropped off SN and description. About an hour and a half later, one of them called the police and they in turn called me. Thanks for providing this excellent service, but no longer needed.

Portland: Just wanted to let you know a friend of (redacted)s found my bike in the yard of known meth house ... today, and repossessed it for me. I'm in NYC so I'm not completely clear on the address - there's a camper in front of it, that's the only detail I got.

Portland #2: My bike and I have been re-united! It was sold at a pawn shop so my serial number worked in my favor for this situation. The guy that stole my bike sold it to a cab driver for $60. He then sold it to (REDACTED) shop for $100. My $1300 bike sold for $100??? I don't get their logic. Guess that's why I'm not a thief. The pawn shop recorded the serial number on the bike (since they have to legally have to) and it came up stolen on the police records and that's when I got notified. It was taken to the pawn shop two days after it was stolen from me. And now it's with me. Lesson learned: use a U lock and know the serial.

Minnesota: I had my bike stolen last week and put it up on your site, but then AMAZINGLY it was located almost immediately by the police via the Automated Pawning System in Minneapolis - It was pawned right away, so almost all my gear was still there too, I was amazed!! They said they usually don't get higher end bikes back! So I wanted to take down my post, or at least post a victory story! If other people have APS in their cities, it's a great resource to call if you think your bike was pawned...and if they don't have it, they should vye for it with their local police department!

Tucson: My Surly was recovered! I'm not sure if it was stolenbicycleregistry or not (It could have been TucsonVelo ... or even Craigslist), but someone at (REDACTED) encountered a suspicious looking fellow with the bike, googled "stolen surly long haul trucker tucson," found the serial, found that it matched, and wouldn't let the person leave! I'm not sure how common these stories are, but I suspect not very, and I'm very happy to have my bike back (though it looks quite a bit different...).

I'm going to have to get in touch with these Automated Pawn System folks in Minneapolis ... looks like a good system.

Webvisions recap

The "(un)Wired future of Bikes" conference-within-a-conference I spoke at on May 20th was a good gig - it was nice to catch a beer with the local bikerati and give away a ton of free "death to bike thieves" stickers. Big ups to the Bikehugger guys for putting it together and getting me in there and a shout to all the people I spoke to afterwards - I'm sorry if I forgot everybody's name but please enjoy all the stickers :)

Despite my initial nervousness over doing a bit of public speaking, the 4-minute Powerpoint presentation I gave went over well - very well met. (This was good, since I banged that Powerpoint in about 20 minutes and never practiced before stepping onto the stage.)

Pictured at right are Metafilter's Matt Haughey talking about Cyclocross, and below that are the Arduino guts inside the Velosynth box. (Velosynth, btw = completely awesome and I'll be keeping an eye on their website from here on out.)

The BikeHugger guys have some more amusing conference-related photos here, here, here, here, and here. And here.