Nobody Expects the Spanish Inquisition

In a recent article on Philly.com the Philadelphia Police Department is taking action against bicycle thieves. Bike theft is a problem within Philadelphia with 11,000 bicycles stolen between 2007 and 2012 and since bike theft is an under-reported crime I have no doubt the number is much higher.

What the PPD does is leave an unlocked bait bike in an area with lots of pedestrian traffic, wait for someone to take it, and then arrest them. This is nothing more than a morality test designed to catch an opportunistic thief. It is very close to entrapment and will likely result in most cases being dismissed. The example in the article with the undercover officers arresting one man reminded me more of the Monty Python Spanish Inquisition sketch. A lot of smoke and noise that has no real effect.




Instead Philadelphia Police Officer Joe Ferrero and his team should be of targeting bike thieves who deliberately steal bikes by cutting locks. The ones who are the real problem. By using expensive bait bikes equipped with a GPS tracker and a basic lock. When someone cuts the lock and steals the bike undercover officers track that person back to their home. Which may result in the recovery of other stolen items and the people who help them store and sell stolen goods.

Officer Joe Ferrero's tactics are superficial at best. While the arrests of bike thieves he generates may look good statistically. In reality they don't deal with the problem of the professional bike thief who works with tools to steal bikes

Gone in 30 Seconds

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Sometimes bicycle theft happens so quickly, just a quick snip with a bolt cutter and no one even notices. Other times it can be incredibly obvious and no one is going to even bother to call the police. In the past a statement like this would have been hard to prove, but with the creation of YouTube, now it’s just a matter of waiting for someone to post a video.

Since a picture is worth a thousand words then video must be worth 10,000 words. Want to see how fast a bike can be stolen watch the video below; the thief walks in, checks for anyone watching him, and rides off with the bike.

While I feel for the person who had this bike. Even if your bicycle is within arms length of you all it takes is a few distracted moments and your bike is gone. Always lock your bicycle to something; taking it inside is no protection from theft.

In 2005 Casey Neistat and his brother Van locked their bicycle in a series of locations with lots of pedestrians and proceeded to steal it using a variety of tools; hacksaws, bolt, cutters, and a grinder. To see if anything would happen, not only did nothing happen, one person even offered advice when he was using a hammer and chisel.

In 2012 at the invitation of the New York Times Casey Neistat went back and tried this again to see if anything had changed. This time in addition to the same tools from last time, he stole his bike in front of a police station and had a black friend steal his bike. At one point the police actually show up, but only after he spent 9 minutes cutting a bike lock with a grinder. Although with a cutting wheel on the grinder it would have taken him two minutes.

Owning a bicycle means at some point it will get stolen and there are things you can do to make it as difficult as possible to steal. So a potential thief will move on to another target, any cable lock or chain you buy in hardware store can be cut with a bolt cutter. You need to invest in a high quality Kryptonite u-lock or chain, Kryptonite rates its locks based on the level of security you need.