11 Comments on Stolen Bike

SouthOfNYC on Wed, 28th May 2008 1:10 pm


I guess it is too much to expect when it comes to the donut munchers doing what they were hired to do… Power corrupts… so its just a question of will they get corrupted before getting too fat to get off their asses in order to get corrupted.

j on Wed, 28th May 2008 1:43 pm


hi. just read about the same problem on gothamist. if a bike isn’t registered with the police (all owners are encouraged to do so), they cannot get involved in theft recovery as ownership is otherwise impossible to verify. not saying the police aren’t ever lazy, but that may not be the situation here.

DukesSoups on Wed, 28th May 2008 4:22 pm


If the lock in the picture is the one that they sawed through, that’s particularly hard core, especially for a schwinn. They would have to have some sort of powered saw.

On the flip side –

“Because of the New York State Law section 3446 of Chapter 187 of the laws of 1999, consumers purchasing Kryptonite U-lock and chains have an insurance program set up by Kryptonite. New York residents are now covered under a 1-year group insurance policy. The amount of the insurance policy will be the same as the amount of the anti-theft protection offer in other states (ie, New York Lock is $3,000). This policy is provided to you by Kryptonite free of charge, however it is not renewable. It is only good for one year.”

from http://www.kryptonitelock.com/CustomerService/FAQ.aspx

Jay on Wed, 28th May 2008 6:44 pm


The police would “retrieve stolen property” if somehow it were recovered and there were evidence that it had been stolen. That’s the purpose behind registering it — unlike a car where there’s an identifying number attached and a title recorded there’s nothing to back up your ownership claim unless you’ve taken that proactive step.

That’s why in the story on Gothamist, mentioned earlier, the police couldn’t do anything. The guy hadn’t registered his bike and hadn’t reported it stolen. There was no evidence that he wasn’t trying to steal it.

As for whether they should investigate, that’s not really going to happen in any actual city in the case of something of little monetary value and where there’s little chance of an investigation succeeding. With likely thousands of bikes stolen every day and resold within literally hours in many cases — with no paper trail that an investigation could follow — unless your bike is readily identifiable (as in the Gothamist story) and of interest enough that someone might pay attention and recognize it (again), chances are it’s lost. Again, even if it’s spotted it’s likely to be in the possession of someone who bought it from the person stole it.

Of course that’s one option to take. Hang out on Manhattan Ave. north of Greenpoint Ave late at night a few times. You’re almost guaranteed to be offered a cheap bike for sale. Or musical instruments, electronic equipment… it’s like a roving flea market out there sometimes.

missheather on Wed, 28th May 2008 7:04 pm


Both Jay and j bring up salient points. (For the record, I was not on the Internets much today— I have company coming and had to run errands. Will give Gothamist a look in a bit.)

Jay wrote: Hang out on Manhattan Ave. north of Greenpoint Ave late at night a few times. You’re almost guaranteed to be offered a cheap bike for sale. Or musical instruments, electronic equipment… it’s like a roving flea market out there sometimes.

YES!!! I have seen this myself and have a very hard time believing this is on the “up and up”. Guys come into the junk shop all the time trying to sell stuff. Usually stereo equipment. It is fishy at best— and no, the junk shop does not buy any of it.

Conversely, the NYPD has come into the junk shop insinuating some of the wares for sale were stolen. They aren’t: they come from storage space auctions and estate sales. They are especially interested in computers— which is why the junk shop does not carry them. Several years ago (2002, I think) the owner of the junk shop was THROWN IN JAIL for carrying a pirated video tape. The “pirated tape” in question was a “Forrest Gump” taped off of prime time television. After spending 24 hours in the “hold-up” he was brought before a judge who angrily dismissed the case. I suppose this issue I am getting at here is priorities/arbitrary enforcement.

In any case, given the rash of burglaries here (several of which were done in broad day light) and V’s bike being stolen (once again, in broad daylight) it makes one wonder what the police and the general public are doing. We should be looking out for each other, not standing by idly as someone breaks a lock. Seriously.

Jay on Thu, 29th May 2008 3:31 am


By the way, one tip that can be worthwhile whether you register your bike with the NYPD or not: write your name, address and phone number on a piece of paper, and remove either the steering post (what the handlebars are connected to) or the seat post… stick that paper inside the frame.

Not only will that allow you to prove you’re the owner if you happen to come across someone in possession of the bike, but any reputable bike shop will, if they find that when doing repairs, give you call.

jake_tuff on Thu, 29th May 2008 9:17 am


Wicked kickstand!

limericklisa on Thu, 3rd Jul 2008 1:55 pm


I’ve never posted on here, but in an effort to bring even MORE attention to this issue, I’ve decided whythehellnot. My boyfriend and I just got back from traveling yesterday, and unfortunately we didn’t bring our bikes in before we left – just didn’t think of it in the frantic effort to leave. Our fault, I know, but honestly? they’re always out there and we’ve never had any trouble as they are quite visibly belonging to someone in the building, locked outside of a ground floor apartment’s window. While they were double locked with two kinds of locks, including that heavy duty one above, a particularly determined a**hole decided that he wanted all three (did I mention that my son’s bike was also locked with ours?). I will be honest, I don’t know the first thing about bikes, about cycling, hell, we bought mine last year because ‘it was pretty’. And the bf had his for ages, wasn’t anything special, and was planning to buy another this summer anyway, so he’s not particularly crushed. The thing that is really pissing me off is that my son’s bike was brand new, obviously the one to catch the eye, and was just brought by Santa this Christmas past. In my naivity I’m still shocked that some theiving bastard would take a kid’s bike.

We have no pictures, can only direct ppl to the Specialized website for the little fella’s, which really, is the only one we are concerned about. It’s at http://www.specialized.com and it’s the 2008 specialized hotrock, 7-speed, 24″ blue/black one.

If anyone has any info, it would be deeply appreciated!!! Thanks so much!

redman13 on Sat, 19th Jul 2008 8:55 am


Ok, yeah this sucks cause i just had my Gary Fisher hoo koo e koo stolen. It was a red mountain bike of value. I got it stolen while watching “The Virgin Suicides” July 15 at McCarren Pool. Had it chained to the fence with hundreds of others bikes and they cut my chain. Looked into trying to get the chain insurance but I never registered the chain or bike, something i would of had to do within 15 days of buying the chain……woops! So now I’m at a loss. Ohh and to further talk shit about the cops. A pair of the pigs where driving by and I showed them my chain, they proceeded to laugh, and I asked them what I could do? “Well theres really nothing you can do, bike theft is a bigger business than car theft around here” stated the piggy #2. No shit, you think? He told me that filing a report was kinda pointless. Hmmmmm you know what, I wanted to punch him in face. But i do live in Crooklyn, right!

Victoria on Sat, 19th Jul 2008 12:06 pm


I had my bike locked to the fence across from McCarren park pool the night of “The Virgin Suicides” screening, too. Was your lock a Kyrptonite NY rated 4 disc EV lock and chain set (the orange one pictured above)? And if so, how do you suppose they cut the chain? I was told that it would take a power tool to cut through one of those chains unless one went at it with a hacksaw for an hour (which if they figured that you were on the pool watching the movie, then they figured they had the time)? That sucks! When my bike was stolen I was told by several people that they must have picked the lock. I’ve heard conflicting rumors as to what Krytonite locks can be picked with a Bic pen and whether or not this design flaw has been corrected in the new locks.
As for the cops, they aren’t gonna do a damn thing. I doubt they would have done anything if they had seen it happening.

jmgprod on Sat, 9th Aug 2008 8:33 pm


Someone broke into our building and stole my bike as well as two other tennants’ bikes. The cops are so short handed right now they kind of just rolled their eyes when they arrived (2 hours later) and took the report. It was a nice bike too! An old reg/green chrome Eddy Merckx that a friend have given to me in parts and I had built. Isn’t there some website that tracks stolen bikes?

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