Large quantity of bikes recovered by police
I thought I would recycle the "bike thief in custody" thread.
Sadly only one bike was returned to its owner-- the rest will probably end up at police auction down the road.
Quick debriefing- the thieves are back out on the street, reports matching their MO have been coming in daily, and their vehicle was spotted this morning. Stay tuned for a separate post on that subject.
This week a north suburban police department reportedly recovered around 100 bikes. A Chicago victim from the Lakeview neighborhood who lost her and her husband's bikes in a garage break-in spotted it on craigslist and got help from the police in that suburb.
It is unclear as of yet whether the seller is an actual thief or a habitual customer of thieves.
I am waiting to hear back from a Chicago detective (yes, there is a Chicago detective with an interest in bike theft!) who was going to try to get an inventory list. He uses the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry in addition to whatever mysterious police- internal database he may have at his disposal to identify owners of recovered bikes.
So, apologies if you've read this before, but the majority of these bikes are not going to find their way back to their rightful owners by themselves-- please, if you know anyone who's lost a bike in the past few weeks/months, please please please urge them to place a report at stolenbike.org, and to at least try to file a police report by calling 311 (the most reasonable wait times by far are at night.)
Old thread content follows.
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On Saturday police took a known bike thief into custody, impounded their vehicle, and seized 5 bikes. One has been claimed (the owner reported it to the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry later in the day.) Unable to give further details at this time, sorry.
There are still 4 "victimless" bikes waiting to be claimed. They have most likely been stolen in the past week-10 days. These thieves seem to favor Logan Square, Wicker Park, Bucktown.
If you know or hear of someone who has lost a bike in the past few weeks, please please urge them to make a report ASAP at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry ("stolenbike.org") and if it's a match we'll get in touch with them immediately.
Thanks!
Sadly only one bike was returned to its owner-- the rest will probably end up at police auction down the road.
Quick debriefing- the thieves are back out on the street, reports matching their MO have been coming in daily, and their vehicle was spotted this morning. Stay tuned for a separate post on that subject.
This week a north suburban police department reportedly recovered around 100 bikes. A Chicago victim from the Lakeview neighborhood who lost her and her husband's bikes in a garage break-in spotted it on craigslist and got help from the police in that suburb.
It is unclear as of yet whether the seller is an actual thief or a habitual customer of thieves.
I am waiting to hear back from a Chicago detective (yes, there is a Chicago detective with an interest in bike theft!) who was going to try to get an inventory list. He uses the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry in addition to whatever mysterious police- internal database he may have at his disposal to identify owners of recovered bikes.
So, apologies if you've read this before, but the majority of these bikes are not going to find their way back to their rightful owners by themselves-- please, if you know anyone who's lost a bike in the past few weeks/months, please please please urge them to place a report at stolenbike.org, and to at least try to file a police report by calling 311 (the most reasonable wait times by far are at night.)
Old thread content follows.
===
On Saturday police took a known bike thief into custody, impounded their vehicle, and seized 5 bikes. One has been claimed (the owner reported it to the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry later in the day.) Unable to give further details at this time, sorry.
There are still 4 "victimless" bikes waiting to be claimed. They have most likely been stolen in the past week-10 days. These thieves seem to favor Logan Square, Wicker Park, Bucktown.
If you know or hear of someone who has lost a bike in the past few weeks, please please urge them to make a report ASAP at the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry ("stolenbike.org") and if it's a match we'll get in touch with them immediately.
Thanks!
Views: 26
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Ace Mann on -
Thanks for the heads up about the bikes.I hope we can find the owners of them.It is great to hear about the police busting someone for stealing bikes.Go CPD.
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Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on -
Actually they weren't busted for stealing bikes . . .part of the reason it's important to find the victims; a bunch of bikes in someone's van is not a crime if nobody's reported them stolen. A few folks are still working to get the dots connected there, which is why more information is not being made public yet.
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Permalink Reply by Jason on
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Howard, post this to Chicago Fixed Gear as well. Lot of the members of that forum are in those neighborhoods.
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Permalink Reply by BalloonBiker on -
Jason, it would be very helpful if you could cross post it. Publicizing the stolen bike registry in any way would be great.
Jason Jenkins said:Howard, post this to Chicago Fixed Gear as well. Lot of the members of that forum are in those neighborhoods.
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Permalink Reply by spacemodular on -
Hey Howard,
Could we get a follow up on this when the time is right?
There is a certain theft ring situation I would like to talk to you privately about as well. I'll get in touch with you soon.
Thanks,
Nick
H3N3 said:Actually they weren't busted for stealing bikes . . .part of the reason it's important to find the victims; a bunch of bikes in someone's van is not a crime if nobody's reported them stolen. A few folks are still working to get the dots connected there, which is why more information is not being made public yet.
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Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on
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So far not much follow-up-- one bike returned, 6 others unclaimed, perp pretty much guaranteed to be out on bond, fate of the vehicle unknown, and already a report today matching his MO (i.e. "take that, suckazz") But yeah, the rest of the story will get out there given consent of all parties involved when feasible.
The big push to get recent victims to report their thefts has not resulted in any more reports than we'd normally receive.
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Permalink Reply by James BlackHeron on -
I guess the lesson is that once a bike is stolen the odds are that the criminal will get away with it.
It wouldn't surprise me if the unclaimed bikes get returned to the thief as the cops probably can't even prove that they are NOT his property!
Hopefully the other unrelated charges stick (unless they are stupid drug war victimless crimes which I can't get behind) and the guy at least goes to jail for a few days. A few days where he won't be stealing stuff from hard-working folks.
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Permalink Reply by Kohaku on -
Good work, Howard. Thanks for the info.
I feel disgusted every time I lock up my bikes in my own garage. What is this world coming to when I start to think I should lock them up in my house.
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Permalink Reply by Michael Perz on -
Howard, can you name the suburb where the bikes were found so anyone that may have had a bike stolen knows who to contact?
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Permalink Reply by h' 1.0 on
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The suburb was intentionally not named-- for a variety of reasons it would really not be good for theft victims to flood the station with calls. If anyone wants to try to find that info on their own I can't stop them, but I'd really rather not blow this one for everyone.
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C on -
The hope is that we will be provided with an inventory of bikes and serial numbers and that information will be provided as soon as it is available. No information regarding the bikes is "known" and being withheld. Howard has established a relationship with the police in the suburb as well as a detective within the Chicago Police Department who are friendly to the bike theft prevention and prosecution cause. Making their lives easier with respect to this matter will help keep them friendly with respect to future matters.
H3N3 said:The suburb was intentionally not named-- for a variety of reasons it would really not be good for theft victims to flood the station with calls. If anyone wants to try to find that info on their own I can't stop them, but I'd really rather not blow this one for everyone.
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