Bicycle thefts on rise in Palo Alto

It would be interesting to know where these thefts were taking place.

It is hard to store a bike in a locked garage or shed unless they are at home. If they are used for transport they should be locked at destinations. So are the theives taking unlocked bikes from outside homes or are they taking bikes which are locked with cheap locks attached to posts (like the one in Mountain View recently).

We are getting better with providing bike parking around town, but if these are the places which are targeted by thieves, then what should be done?

Where are the bicycles being stolen from? My understanding is that (in other cities at least), most bicycles are stolen from school bike racks and from home garages. Kids use cheapo locks that are easy to break with hand tools and security at school bike racks is terrible. Home garages may be locked, but the bicycles inside usually are not. Breaking a garage door is pretty easy. Sometimes thieves case out a neighborhood to see where high end bicycles get parked. Sometimes they will even follow people home, then steal their bicycle later that night.

What to the thieves do with all of these used bikes? Sell them on eBay?

It seems a priority to try to make cikes more secure at schools when the policy is to encourage cycling.
I am not a cyclist, but I attended Gunn yrs ago (and I saw plenty of bikes there) and my kids attended Paly and they rode bikes sometimes.
Can someone comment on this: my recollection is that Gunn had (and still likely has) a very nice tall large bike cage (locked part of the day?) whereas Paly had (not sure current situation)basically no security whatsoever for bikes.
It’s hardly news that bikes are stolen.

Paly has a locked bike cage, like the middle schools, but the system does not suit every student. The cage is locked once school starts and unlocked just before school ends. But, if a student has a free period so arrives late or leaves early, or if the student wants to use their bike at lunch time, it does not suit.

My daughter’s locked bike was stolen from the Gunn bike cage.

The Paly bike cage is still filled with bikes so it works for most students. It’s asking too much to have them unlock it at lunch to fit the needs of a few. My son just uses a U-lock and doesn’t use the bike cage because there is no concrete within the bike cage, just dirt, and he doesn’t like to have to set down his backpack on dirt.

The most vulnerable time for a bike is after school if your child plays sports or otherwise leaves it in the cage with no one around after school. I’ve heard of bikes being stripped or stolen when students are at their sports.

Jordan Middle School gets bikes stolen and messed with a lot. My daughter had to see her teacher for about 15 min. after class. She found her bike in the cage, knocked over. She rode it home and the brakes were rubbing the tire so we took it to a bike shop. Turns out, the handlebars were very loose. Someone obviously tried to strip her bike because there was no reason her handlebars should have been that loose. I am grateful, she didn’t have a fall due it.

Not just us, but friends said their bikes are messed with at Jordan too. I heard sometimes they climb over the fence and strip bikes. It’s such a visible location on North CA, and there is a sign stating there are cameras, so these criminals have no fear.

Note to parents on bike purchasing – don’t buy a name brand due to thefts/vandalism. Students don’t care about status bikes so it won’t score coolness points. I bought my son a Trek and worried about it being stolen. I am actually glad it is old enough to look like a beater bike now.

Buy a U-lock and place it in the side water bottle pocket on the backpack. There used to be an issue with U-locks being opened with pens but no longer with the new U-locks.

Coil bike locks are easily, easily cut in a second.

It’s easy to steal bikes from open garages. It’s even happened that when a car with a garage-opening remote was left unlocked, a thief would use it to open the garage and steal bikes.

Very common for thieves to use crowbars to break in to locked garages. Most people have very wimpy locks on their garage doors. When you’re sleeping at home, you’re not likely to hear someone break in to your garage.

I mentioned this several months ago about theft on the Stanford campus. There are nearly 400 bicycles reported stolen per year at Stanford. That is more than one bike per day. If the average cost of a bicycle is $300 (it is actually much higher on campus), then theft of bicycles alone from the Stanford campus is approximately $120,000 per year. And, of course, there are probably just as many bicycles that do NOT get reported as stolen.

My sister has had THREE bikes stolen on campus. All three were locked. All three were “registered.” All three were easily identified (one had her name written with a Sharpie on the frame in big, bold letters). All three were kept in secure locations. Yet, all three were stolen by selfish criminal thugs.

Here is a funny sign from the Stanford Daily:

http://tusb.stanford.edu/tag/bike-theft

It is common knowledge that bicycle theft has been a major problem on the campus for years. Many students, like my sister, cannot afford to keep providing a handful of jerks with the fruit of their criminal activity.

When we were registering the first bicycle on campus, I asked what the registration meant…and what the fees were supposed to accomplish. I was told that they are meant to prevent theft. I asked how many bicycles are “recovered.” The officer laughed and said, “None.”

It would be great to find a way to catch these thieves. They steal bicycles today. Next, it will be stealing cars or burglarizing homes. Criminology statistics show that theft often follows a “gateway” set of tiers. Petty thieves perpetually move on to more “valuable” things.

Sadly, when this is pointed out, there are always a handful of people who get angry and almost blame the victims. As a student, I was assigned to attend a few county probation department meetings. One of them included a court-ordered “anger management” class. One of the men sitting in the class argued that if someone didn’t want their bicycle stolen, then “they should have bought a better lock.”

In other words, the thieves almost feel entitled to things if you can’t secure it enough. And, unfortunately, those thieves are often the same guys who pride themselves with being able to cut/pry any lock. It is a disgusting display of hubris.

It would be good if PAPD and the university police department could have more bike or Segway patrols around places where cars don’t travel. Most bicycles at Stanford are stored away from the streets. The same is true of the bikes at PAHS. It would be great to see some uniformed officers patrolling those areas regularly, or just looking for suspicious activity.

If nothing is done, I fear that Palo Alto may see an increase of even worse criminal activity.

Like Your Bike? Lock It! A lock will deter the majority of thefts.

Buy a high quality bike lock
• If you can’t afford to lose your bike, a quality U-lock is a smart investment.
• Inexpensive cable locks can be cut quickly with bolt or wire cutters. High quality locks are more secure.

Lock through your bike FRAME
• Do not lock only through wheels, seat posts, or handlebars which can be easily removed.

Lock to a secure bike rack whenever possible
• NOT to fence wire or a sapling tree which can be cut.
Get a bike license
• In Palo Alto bikes are required to be licensed so police can identify bicycle owners in case of theft or injury accidents.
• Purchase a bike license at any Palo Alto Fire Station 4-5p.m., 7 days a week. You must bring your bike.
For more information about how to lock your bike, go to http://bikeclass.swent.net/Locking.htm#More

@ Penny:

Like I said, the officer at Stanford said that the “license” registration that people pay for accounts for ZERO recovered bicycles.

And, of course, it would be good to crack down on bike thieves too. My sister had several good locks — including the U-lock that you mentioned. Somehow, these thugs are still able to steal.

I have no sympathy for the jerks who steal like this. If we could automatically lock them up for a year (at THEIR expense) for a first conviction and also bring immense ridicule to them, I would be happy. Of course, I would be happy to just send thieves like this to their own little “fantasy” island and let them fend for themselves.

Of course, I am being facetious. However, something needs to be done about the criminal epidemic that is plaguing our society.

>> “something needs to be done about the criminal epidemic that is plaguing our society. “

We have the highest incarceration rate, and the highest recidivist rate in the developed world. The courts are backloged for years. The prisons are overflowing to the point that we have to turn criminals back on the streets, and everything is a crime now. Even victimless crimes.

What does it all mean? It means good times and expansion for the criminal justice industry. It’s job security for all of them, at the expense of everyone else.

Until society reigns in the criminal justice industry, things will never improve.

Nayeli suggested that PAPD cops should do more bike patrols. Call 650-329-2413 and ask PAPD how many officers they have on duty. I think you will be very suprised.

Another victim – did the thieves saw through the Kryptonite U-lock? I would think that is hard to do without making enough noise to alert people.

The Palo Alto Police now maintains an on-line web-page where people can make reports about problems which might demand a police response—which includes bike thefts. Currently, this information seems to be “write-only”—meaning that it disappears from public view. There really is no reason that this information should not be made public, at least without personal contact information—given the community some sense of how bad a problem bicycle theft is, for a given period of time.

This web-page should be enhanced so that people could upload pictures, or short videos, of their bikes. Additionally, there should be provisions made for QR codes, which no doubt will be used more in the future for personal identification. Such a database ought to have “back-end” support so that people can upload a QR code (.jpg image) and the web-page would search the open theft reports to see if anyone has reported such a bike missing—alerting the person uploading the QR code that this bicycle is probably stolen, as well as the responsible police officers responsible for assisting in the recovery of stolen property.

The Palo Alto Police are simply not using the Internet/Web very effectively.

Video surveillance was suggested years ago, but the barriers to putting it in public schools are apparently insurmountable.

@Niyeli. Eliminating any hope of returning to the workforce after a first offense is the modern equivalent of cutting off the right hand of the thief. We need to give at least the first offenders a chance to re-start, without having to stick with crime to survive.
That includes sealing arrest records, intervention in the form of educational opportunities, job placement, and yes, even money to survive on while training.
The alternative is to keep throwing money away on a for-profit, increasingly privatized prison system, which is rigged to provide more offenders, not fewer. The cost of that system is spiraling out of control, with no relief in sight. And simply euthanizing all criminals is not going to happen, no matter how many people secretly favor that solution. We are throwing good money after bad, and it is only going to get worse.
Outside Observer is telling it like it is. I doubt if he/she likes it that way, it’s just the way it is.
The community college system took a 17% hit from the legislature two years ago, and more bad news is on the way. A lot of those dollars are ending up in the prison system, and in the pockets of private operators. Think about it. Where would you like your tax dollars to go?

@ Steve C:

Thanks for your response. Most of the things that were recommended here were done for my sister’s bikes. We even engraved on the bottom of the frame, “If you read this, then this bike is lost. Please call us at xxx-xxx-xxxx.”

Yet, none of these bikes were recovered. The officers on campus advised us that they will probably never be recovered. So, this is yet another victory for a small group of selfish thieves who prefer to steal than work.

I agree with the idea of sealing criminal records of first time crooks who have been arrested, served their time, paid back the victim AND the state for the cost of their crimes/incarceration and remained crime-free for a certain probationary period of time (7 years?). If they don’t do this, then they shouldn’t get off so easily. No one should have to hire a criminal simply because the state doesn’t want to identify them for what they have done.

Instead of calling the prison system a “for-profit” system, we should simply change the system. Some criminals should expect the WORST. If they murder, rape, rob or assault others, then their living conditions should reflect it. Compared to most of the rest of the world, our violent criminal prisoners are living extremely well. After a certain period of good behavior, allow them to work their way (via good behavior AND good earning) to better conditions. And, they should NEVER go free if they haven’t made some form of restitution to their victims.

BTW, I think that Jerry Brown is misleading the masses when he complains that higher education is taking such a funding “hit.” The cost of education is going up, but so is the tuition (disproportionately so).

The reason that the cost of education is going up is ENTIRELY in terms of salaries and pensions. The costs of educational resources is nearly the same. The main difference is the ever-increasing employee benefits.

@where

We don’t know if they sawed the lock, picked it, or if they used a master key (somehow) because they took everything: bike, helmet, lock. Either way it seems that the lock is useless.

I follow Sheldon Brown’s method for locking bike’s which advocates locking the rear rim through the rear triangle with a U-Lock. He explains the method with pictures and even details why this is the best method as opposed to locking through the frame.

http://www.sheldonbrown.com/lock-strategy.html