| Subject: | RE: Bike thieves |
| Date: | 10/25/2005 06:11 AM |
| From: | Eric Kytola |
|
I couldn't help but thinking about bike thieves last night. But mostly I had questions. People were thinking our bikes get jacked and sent to another city where people bought our hot bikes. But I asked myself "how many people do I know that have bought a hot bike?" I couldn't think of anyone of the people I have ridden with who I thought might be riding a hot bike (wether they know it or not). So then I have to ask "well who would buy a hot $3,000 bike". I can't think of a substantial group of people who would buy stolen $3,000 bikes. I have a hard time thinking people would feel comfortable buying a used $3,000 bike anyway. So I couldn't think of anywhere or anyone who would buy our stolen bikes. Then I recalled a few episodes of Cops I had seen. The cops were busting people who were stealing copper wire to sell to scrap yards. I started wondering....maybe those bike thieves are recycling all the parts on the bikes to scrap yards. You might think I am crazy but I have 2 points of reference. My younger brother is a cyclist and he is also schizophrenic. He had a suspension fork that he thought was junk and unsafe to sell (which it wasn't) so he brought it to the metal recycler and got 5.00. he also thought he broke a specialized big hit last year. He took that in and got 8.00. I have also been forunate enough to have a few close friends that destroyed their lives being meth heads. Those people aren't rational or logical. They do stuff like tear all the wiring out of their cars so they can re-wire because it will run better. I have seen them steal skateboards to sell at 2nd hand stores. I have seen them rip video games off from friends to sell. The point is they aren't smart. They find something that works and makes them a few bucks and stick with it. They aren't looking to sit on a 3,000 bike and sell it 9 days later on e-bay. They aren't going to tear bikes apart and sell them for parts on e-bay. It takes too long to get the money! They need to get high NOW! Tweakers can't even stand still, there is no way they will take the time to market stuff. I am curious to know how many (if any) bike parts are rolling through the metal recycle yards in PDX? -----Original Message----- From: scott klinger [mailto:a1234bi-@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 8:07 PM To: ob-@topica.com Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves Well, without giving too much away, as of right now its all line of sight stuff. Not very high tech. I've asked about some other ways, because obviously line of sight doesn't work so well. I mentioned Lojack, but I guess there is a lot of issues with it right now, i.e. no power source. After reading some of the ideas on the board, I have to admit, I would not want to piss off the bike riders in this city, I like the ideas of U-locking someone to a fixed object, and I really liked the idea of radiating bike parts, that was good. You don't even need to take them to OSU, just run over to Reed and do it there. shane.-@comcast.net wrote: Scott- Does the police force use any RF technology to track the bikes once stolen, or is it all line of site (eyesight) type work? -------------- Original message -------------- I had to respond to the bike thieves stuff. I'm a Portland Officer working out of Southeast Precinct, the hotbed of stolen bikes in Portland. I have to say that the bikes that are being stolen here are not staying here. Where they are going, I'd love to know, but they aren't going into the second hand stores to be re-sold. All of us out in OBRA land would be looking out for them. I search Ebay everyday on my own, and I haven't found where they disappear to. If anyone has any idea where the bikes go, or any ideas on who is ripping them off, feel free to let me know. I'd love to work on some bike thieves, I hate them as much as anyone reading this. And by the way, some of my fellow officers were doing a bike sting on Hawthorne a couple weeks ago and a dirtbag, (sorry, not a p.c. term "earthsack") stole our bait bike. And he got away. Now that I'm done laughing at my fellow officers, if anyone spots a black Cannondale Scapel mountain bike, freshly purchased from River City, we'd love to have it back. Yes, the cops got their bike ripped off right from underneath their nose, go ahead and laugh. MAKE SURE YOU HAVE YOUR SERIAL NUMBER HANDY! Scott Long, Steve wrote: I'm all for going "Clown" on them... ;-) ________________________________ From: Erin Playman [mailto:erinpl-@yahoo.com] Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 2:04 PM To: OBRA Subject: RE: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves If it makes you feel any better, I work for a public defender and have gotten cases where PPB sets up stings for bike thieves. They put out a very expensive bike (usually full susp. mtb, they have a little fleet of their sting bikes) and get the person who takes it. Some of their very expensive bikes solicit felonies when stolen. They aren't doing the clown thing, however, and should definately take that into consideration. "Keith A. Prior" wrote: Bike thieves are scum of the Earth! I am not really sold on the Death Penalty but nothing burns me more than bike thieves and I feel that they should be gassed!! If I wasn't someone's daddy I'd get a few fed up people together who had their bikes lifted and set up a bike 'sting' to tempt a thief. When the punk goes riding off with the bike we come out of hiding dressed as clowns in makeup riding cruisers and do what the Italians did to Dave Stoller in Breaking Away! When the cops ask him who did this to him as he lays on the ground seeing stars all he can manage to say is "Clowns! A bunch of clowns!" the cops will assume he is on drugs and not take him seriously! Yea yea...I know what you are going to say. Well...what do YOU think about all those hours you are out riding? -K :) -----Original Message----- From: Shane Young [mailto:shane.-@comcast.net] Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 1:25 PM To: OBRA Subject: Re: [OBRA Chat] Bike thieves There was a story in one of the papers in the last month that said that Portland is a haven for theives everywhere in the country because of the lax "second hand" stores laws. These stores don't have to play buy the same rules as pawn shops plus the law enforcement for these type of stores has been cut down do to budget cuts. -------------- Original message -------------- So.... where do the cracked-out freaks unload the bikes at?? In light of the fact that I just lost my s-works hardtail and tcr 1 I have some personal interest here. These guys can't unload them at pawn shops can they? Or are they just selling them to random people on the street? ________________________________ From: Thomas Schoenborn [mailto:th-@sparqtraining.com] Sent: Monday, October 24, 2005 12:23 PM To: OBRA Subject: [OBRA Chat] Bike thief foiled Some dude just walked in where I work, wandered to the far end of our warehouse, and tried to steal my bike. Luckily, a co-worker accosted him, and the guy scooted without his quarry. But man! Middle of the morning! Broad daylight! In the Pearl! Walks into a building with closed doors, strolls through two more closed doors, and tries to skip out with my Serotta. Meth-heads are scary... To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com a1234bi-@yahoo.com To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com a1234bi-@yahoo.com To respond to the whole group send to ob-@topica.com. To respond to the list manager send to cmur-@obra.org To unsubscribe send to obra-uns-@topica.com |
