"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 ...