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Palo Alto police are seeking thieves who tarket high-end bicycles, worth between $1,000 and $10,000, Agent Dan Ryan reported this week.
A total of 31 bicycles, each worth $1,000 or more, have been stolen from June through last week, Ryan said. Nine of the 31 bikes were worth between $4,000 and $10,000.
The thefts are taking place throughout the city.
“We have noticed the numbers, certainly, so our investigators are beginning to track where they’re going to and hopefully lead back to those people or groups responsible,” Ryan said.
With Stanford University and high school and middle school students, bikes are lost or stolen nearly every day in Palo Alto, according to Ryan. However, there has been a spike in the thefts of the expensive bikes most likely used for resale.
“There seems to be a bump up in some of the expensive ones,” Ryan said. “These are more custom road bikes or those with custom components that
are used for longer rides.”
Detectives are looking into the various cases, most likely carried out by different individuals or groups, according to Ryan.
The city is trying to encourage bicycling to reduce pollution and traffic/parking congestion within our city. More bicycle commuting increases the need for secure bicycle parking, but unfortunately that is where the city is letting us down. The bike racks around our public schools are overflowing and not very secure to begin with. Around University Ave. and other shopping districts, there is very little safe bicycle parking. There are some bike racks in the parking garages, but those are hard to find and mostly hidden so thieves can work on your locks without being disturbed.
Please install more bicycle racks in the city shopping districts. If there is not enough room on the sidewalks, then replace a couple of car parking places with bike racks. You can probably park a dozen bicycles in the same space as one car.
Most employers will let employees bring their bicycles into the office, so the bike thieves are probably focusing on bicycles parked around stores and restaurants these days.
Our son had 2 bikes stolen in 2008, one from Terman and one from Gunn. First one was locked (cable type, not U lock), and the second one was unfortunately not locked (but in bike cage).
It might help to have surveillance cameras on all bike parking areas at each school.
Bike parking really is a problem. Our kids only have cheap bikes because of the damage that happens in school bike racks and also one of our really old bikes was stolen or borrowed 3 times and reappeared with a little diligent looking in obvious places. The schools should do a much better job with providing more secure bike racks, but we need more racks, the U kind not the toaster kind, at all public venues, libraries, etc.
Could we get any statistics on where these bikes are typically getting stolen from? From homes, from downtown areas, from workplaces?
My son had an expensive road bike stolen last month from someone who came around during the daytime with cable cutters and ripped his bike off. He had locked it near a VTA bus stop due to the fact that the buses only have 1 bike rack for 1 bike which forces people to leave their bikes where they pick the bus up and not in a secure place. When he can, he takes it with him to San Jose State. Now he has to walk everywhere which takes more time. Very unsettling!
I was wondering from where also. Mostly homes, schools or businesses? We have had so many bikes ripped off we’ve lost count. A few were our own fault though. Crummy locks. Kids leaving them in stupid places. Really too bad people can’t keep their thieving hands off other peoples possessions.
I wonder if the police could leave a decoy expensive bike outfitted with a GPS and other “catch ’em in the act” technology?
Oooh, great idea!
All the bike thefts that have happened to friends of mine either happened at schools or in front of stores. All the bikes were locked, but some kinds of bike racks make secure locking very difficult.
I do read about thefts from people’s garages. There was even a recent string of high-end thefts by breaking in to bike shops and even cases of employees stealing bikes from bike shops. I don’t know if bike shop theft is included in this article’s statistics.
For just riding to work or school, buy the cheapest bike that will get you there. Never understood why someone would buy a $1000+ for just going to work or school.
Some people only have one bicycle that they use for everything. Buying different bicycles for different purposes may make sense, but many people don’t have the money or the space for that.
PAUSD with the PTAC Traffic Safety team have worked together to quantify the need at all PAUSD secondary schools for additional rack space. PAUSD already has made a commitment to order additional bike racks for Paly, JLS and Gunn. Terman has adequate rack space, but the existing racks there will be reorganized so that they are more convenient for cyclists to access. PAUSD already purchased new racks for Jordan this year.
Thanks to an excellent report on bike parking written by PTA Traffic Safety Committee Rep, Rich Swent, PAUSD now understands the issues. PAUSD also has agreed to invest in higher quality racks for the secondary schools where toaster racks are insufficent to provide adequate security and protection from damage for older students’ more adult-sized bikes.
Many thanks to Rich Swent for his careful analysis and to Assoc. Superintendent Bob Golton and Pete Pearne for responding to cyclists’ need for new racks. Pete is in the process of ordering racks now. They should be installed soon. Students can look forward to using these new bike parking facilities.
PAUSD is experiencing record numbers of bicyclists at some sites this year. This has created some new problems that caught us by surprise, but it is certainly far less expensive to accomodate increased numbers of cyclists than mitigate the impacts of increased numbers of autos. With enrollment going up, we’ll want a higher percentage of students to walk and bike. We don’t have capacity at most PAUSD school sites for more autos. Mitigating the impacts of autos (providing parking and additional road and driveway capacity for cars, to say nothing of the environmental and safety impacts) is unbelievably expensive for the city and school district. Bike riders are doing us all a huge favor. It’s great that PAUSD recognizes this and has chosen to support our student cyclists.
Many thanks to the thousands (no exaggeration) of PAUSD students who walk, bike, ride public transit, and carpool to school. By choosing alternative modes of transportation, each of them is helping to reduce daily congestion and auto emissions in our community. They are making a difference. Perhaps more of us adults should follow their excellent lead.
Penny
Our latest bike was bought used, and is ugly so hopefully won’t get stolen.
Here’s a website showing how to ugly-up (down?) your bike to prevent theft:
http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-keep-your-bike-from-being-stolen/
We purchased nice bikes (15 gears) at Walmart for $49.99 each.
They have performed fine (no flat tires, or any problems, and they look nice.
The more expensive bikes in the $300 – $600 range are all made in China (as is the Walmart bike we own).
If our bikes are stolen, we won’t feel the pain as bad as having an expensive bike stolen. Our family does fine with low end bikes –
We don’t need expensive bikes to get around town.
Some general comments: As another writer said, not everyone wants to buy multiple or inexpensive bikes as a “fix” for the crime wave we are experiencing. In fact for those who do depend on their bikes for longer commutes purchasing cheaper bikes with poor reliability is not the way to go. We are all encouraged to ride bikes to support the environment and alleviate traffic, but the infrastructure to support safety and security for cyclists is far from adequate. (I am especially concerned about the “lax” speed enforcement on Charleston and Arastradero Rd. where a lot of our children ride their bikes to school.)
Palo Alto is one of the most bicycle friendly cities in the country yet needs much improvement in this area. I certainly like the idea of taking parking spots for cars and converting them to bicycle parking areas. This may encourage more to ride bikes as well.
I’ve had numerous bikes and bike parts stolen from me when I lived in Berkeley and in Davis. Why do I not feel sorry for someone who has a $10,000 bike stolen in Palo Alto?
Isn’t blaming the victim when their expensive bicycle gets stolen the same as blaming a rape victim because of her skirt length? We should be attacking the criminals, not the victims.
There are two parts to the equation: providing adequate parking facilities, and making sure that people secure their bikes properly.
The school district is now well on their way to providing more racks and better racks. City staff understands the need for more racks but doesn’t have the unilateral power to install them the way the school district does. City staff will be working with the downtown business owners to provide more high-quality bike parking. Removing car spaces for bike parking is an option for discussion, although historically it has been very difficult to get public support for this.
If people don’t lock their bikes securely they put everyone’s bikes at risk because easy targets attract thieves and professional theft rings. I don’t mean to blame the victims but some of them need to be educated on how to make their bikes harder to steal.
Great News! We just got a call that the PAPD recovered our son’s stolen bike. We are so glad we registered and filed a police report. It took 36 days so I’m also glad we didn’t rush out to buy a replacement but had an extra bike he could use.
Thank you Palo Alto Police Dept!
My road bike was taken from my apartment complex in May on Curtner Ave. Locked up an everything. I filled the tires before I went to bed and it was gone the next morning.
Please report all bicycle thefts to the police, no matter how cheap the bicycle. A full understanding of the scope and pattern of the crimes can help them solve and prevent more of them.
It is also a good idea to register your bicycles with the city and state. This service is cheap and in theory can recover your bicycle after a theft. The city web site is really difficult to navigate, so here is a direct link to the bicycle registration page:
http://www.cityofpaloalto.org/depts/pln/news/details.asp?NewsID=214&TargetID=107
Thanks for the weblink.
We just bought a bike in a Palo Alto bike shop. Shame that they didn’t register it at the time of purchase since the website says that bike shops as well as fire stations can register them.