bike thief

To All With Bicycles: Beware!

I woke up last night to the whine of grinding metal. I stuck my head out the window and saw a man using an electric hand-saw gizmo to slice a lock off of a bike hitched to a gate railing two buildings down. Still groggy, I called 911 to report it, but by the time I had told the operator what I thought was happening, he had popped the lock and thrown the bike in the back of a van. As the van sped away, I tried to read the license plate but it was obscured by a tree. It was a lousy thing to witness.

The details: 4:45am, looked like 426 Sterling Place, he looked like a trim, African-American man in his forties with no facial hair in possibly a green t-shirt and pants driving a steel-blue or silver-blue van, maybe a chevy, probably mid-90's make.

If anyone wakes to that whining sound and sees a van, I guess call 911. And if you have a bike, better to keep it locked up inside the building, not on the street.

This might be worth a Global Post, no?

i am not sure how to do that. if you know how, then you are welcome to cut and paste my message and make it global.

Interesting. One night last week (around midnight) I was lying in bed and I could swear I heard the sound of hacksawing in front of our building....manual hacksaw though. Couldn't see anything from the window, so I ran downstairs but didn't see anyone or any signs of a recently stolen bike (broken lock, etc). I chalked it up to bike theft paranoia...but your post has me rethinking that. I saw a sliced cable lock across the street about a week before...so there's definitely a lot of this going around.

I have a friend who lives just west of Washington down there and I can't believe how many bikes I see locked outside- and not with very amazing locks either. Way to keep your eyes open.

fwiw, my wifes bike was jacked 2 nights ago. the worst part: it was double locked w/ a kyrptonite lock + massive mul-t-lock and huge chain around the center tube. How did the thieves get it? they sawed through the #@!?% bike frame. It wasn't like it was some high dollar bike -- a simple ladies trek 21 speed. So the locks didnt fail - the thieves are just morons.

if you see a jerk out there riding a turquoise trek with a weld in the frame, rabbit punch them for me.

alot of bike thieves are serial hoarders, you read about them once a while, they'll have a full house of bike parts etc...

when i brought my crack house the infamous thief june bug from prospect heights had few floor full of bikes, i try to give away, only one artist came and took one the rest i threw out.

Someone's white bike was gone and the lock snipped on Butler/Plaza Street East. Bike was there in the am, gone this evening.

It was a super cute bike too, left out for weeks on end chained to a street sign.

A bit off topic but I would love more info on june bug please. Sounds fascinating. do you have pictures of the bike horde?

Sorry to all those who've had their bikes stolen.