Bicycle Thievery.
That’s correct, forget about love and happiness. Bike theft is rampant each and every
spring. And it’s not in the inner
cities. Most bike thefts occur on
college campuses. To everything there is
a season and each spring a seasonal uptick in bikes being snatched from
unsuspecting students is realized across America’s bastions of higher education.
The simple reason for thefts in spring is the
warm weather meaning more bikes are on campus.
The thieves come out at night and they strike mostly on weekends. The next pattern shows that bikes are stolen within
a close proximity of each other. Last
and most sadly, they are never recovered.
They end up in river beds, at the bottom of frog ponds, or they simply
become the property of whoever stole it in the first place.
College bikes are not exactly top of the line Cervelo’s. They are the bike from the student’s youth
that was discarded to the dusty section of the garage right next to the bubble
hockey game that took up too much space and was missing a defenseman. Taking the old machine to college seemed like a good idea. Maybe someday the bubble hockey game will get fixed...
Bicycle theft is usually reported to the campus
police. After lending a concerned ear
and a display of thoughtful concern, the trail immediately goes cold. Campus cops feel they have more important
things to do than search for a bleary-eyed college student’s 20 year old Huffy
with a resale value of $10.
Sometimes the bikes aren’t even stolen; they were
simply borrowed for a ride home. It wasn’t
necessarily a bike thief doing the “borrowing,” just a guy with a foggy mind
after an evening with Newcastle Brown (it can sure knock you down). Bikes are just moved from one part of campus
only to be found the next day in another.
Nothing sinister. Nothing
requiring thirty days in the hole.
In most cases the students don’t do enough to protect
their property. The most common attempt
to safeguard their rusting machine is with a lock and chain (easily cut
through) or the rider removes the saddle thinking that no one would steal a
bike without a seat (not understanding that the new owner could simply buy a
new saddle). Some schools have investigated the smart idea of
placing security cameras at bike rack locations but after perusing the price
tag for such prevention the idea doesn’t seem as brilliant.
Colleges have begun programs that allow bike owning
students to register their machines with the campus police. The student then receives a registration
sticker that is then affixed to the frame.
The result is that just as many registered bikes get stolen as non-registered machines. The sticker
does very little except stick. It does
not shoot mace into the eyes of thieves nor does it deliver a numbing jolt of
electricity.
The best advice is to lock bikes inside a dorm,
house, or apartment. If the bike is
being left outside the rider should lock the frame to both wheels and remove
anything that cannot be locked. Short of
that then we suggest a good pair of walking shoes and familiarity with the
campus bus routes.
Please visit our website at www.stickybottleteam.net
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| Do this... |
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| ...to avoid a watery end. |
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