LOCKS AND GATES NO SECURITY AGAINST BIKE THEFT
”It Seems So Organized” Says One Victim

Leaving the lock when stealing a bike is really rubbing it in. (John Streit Photos — click on any image to enlarge) — Leaving the lock when stealing a bike is really rubbing it in.
*(John Streit Photos — click on any image to enlarge)*

by John Streit
For Kareem Marie, his two-month-old e-bike was his source of income first and used for exercise, second. He works in the fast-growing food delivery industry, so it’s important that he is fast and efficient in getting meals to hungry customers in downtown Vancouver. “It was a beautiful design, super sturdy and comfortable,” he says.

That’s why he was left annoyed and frustrated recently when his dream bike was stolen from his building’s parking lot in the West End. “The lock was defeated and left as a trophy! At first, I was like oh where did I leave my bike? Did I just leave it on the outside rack and forgot to return it to the parking area?” Sure enough, his neighbour had his bike stolen as well. He now wonders how he’ll get the money for a new e-bike. “It was modified to fit heavy duty and was gone without a trace. Even with a serial number lodged and registered. I took bus trips for hours to find it and I couldn't,” he laments.

West Enders are sharing their stories of bike thefts like Kareem’s from seemingly secure, locked parking lots, underground garages, and outdoor bike racks fully in the public view.

April King is new to the West End from Australia. When apartment hunting, she and her boyfriend specifically looked for a building with gated secured parking and bicycle storage for a bike his parents had bought him. “It was pretty disappointing that it was stolen from what was meant to be secured bike storage. Our building manager has done nothing. He claims to have checked the security cameras but couldn’t find anything, which is hard to believe as there were two to three bikes stolen at the same time,” she says. King now keeps their bikes in their apartment.

At Janet’s Roach’s building, thieves simply stole the entire bike rack, bolts and all. “My bikes were extremely important to me and I could not afford to replace them. I’m shocked that no one heard or saw anything. I’m not sure what Vancouver Police can do, the problem seems so big and organized,” she says.

Roach is entirely right on both points, bike theft is a big problem in our city and often, thieves are organized.

Late last month, Vancouver Police announced they had busted a stolen bike fencing operation run out of a self-storage locker in East Vancouver where almost $50,000 worth of bikes were seized. In total, 27 stolen bikes were recovered including e-bikes, mountain bikes, and high-end road bikes. No charges have been laid but the VPD says the investigation continues and it is continuing to work on reuniting the bikes with their rightful owners.

In fact, around 2,000 bicycles are reported stolen in the city every year including 2,115 in 2020, although investigators believe many more thefts are never reported. That number could skyrocket in 2021 with a pandemic-fueled increase in riding of 400 percent (Dr. Bonnie Henry told us to go outside) and a boost in bike sales of 300 percent in Vancouver. That’s a lot more selection out there for those coveting your ride locked outside a liquor store or restaurant.

For West Ender Matt Swatridge, his bikes were important because they were his means of transportation as he doesn’t have a vehicle. They were also stolen recently. “It’s a huge invasion of privacy. I’m in a house with a big fence and a gate so obviously, they had been watching and knew exactly what they were doing. All while I was sleeping five feet away. It was disturbing,” he says. He’s now on the hunt for a new bike but “it’s hard to find a decent bike that isn’t 2k plus,” Swatridge adds.

The good news is Vancouver has seen an overall drop in bike thefts of 45 percent since 2015 after the VPD formed a partnership with 529 Garage, a bike registration database and online information-sharing platform.

Six years ago, Detective Rob Brunt got in an early morning car accident and tore his shoulder. He had been working on the street as an officer his whole twenty-five-year career. “Before that, I'd walk the beat, traffic enforcement, and was on the bicycle squad” he said. While he was on light duty he visited the property office and saw they had this large revolving rack machine like those you’d see at a dry-cleaner. “But instead of shirts and pants, they had bicycles. The machine holds 500 bikes and goes up 2.5 stories and takes 20 minutes to cycle through. It was full, with another 100 bikes on the ground,” he says. Brunt found out the bikes were held by the VPD for 90 days, then removed. A revelation came to him that "a bum belongs to every one of those bike seats."

He says at the time, the chance of a bike serial number coming back "stolen" on the Canadian Police Information computer was like “winning the 6/49.” "In my whole career, I think I might be stretching it by saying six bikes,” Brunt says.

Brunt thought he'd been doing a fantastic job seizing stuff from crooks but all it did was go to auction. He immediately thought the city should launch its own online registration system, so he started searching around to see if anyone else in Canada was already doing it. No luck, not even a paper version.

Brunt then met J Allard, a former Microsoft chief technology and experience officer who helped develop the Xbox in the games’ division. Allard created an App called Project 529. "We didn't have a budget to do an app and I don't know how much it would have cost to develop it," Brunt says. He and Allard met in Seattle. "Our meeting was supposed to be an hour and we spoke for four hours about bike theft." He says within a week he had Allan in front of the chief of the Vancouver Police Department and the rest is history. He says 80,000 bikes in Vancouver are registered through Project 529 and over 2,000,000 bikes on the system overall.

"The program allows people to give us tips and the number of tips coming in is crazy. So now we're catching on to the self-storage lockers," Brunt says, referring to the "jackpot" bust of an organized bike fencing operation in East Vancouver last month.

Allard had some simple and blunt inspiration for creating the Project 529 app: his bike was ripped off in Seattle from his truck on his way to Crankworx in Whistler. “When it appeared online, I got a front-row seat to the many dimensions of the problem. The bad actors are far more organized than the good actors. So, we set out to create a tool that helps the good actors - police, cyclists, bike shops, advocacy groups, city agencies, manufacturers, schools - to organize around the problem. It’s a surprisingly multi-faceted solution with fairly even blame across the players - bad locks, locking practices and massive under-reporting by cyclists, the lack of compulsory registration (like all other vehicles) to prove provenance, shops selling inadequate locks with little education on proper locking, poor cross-agency cooperation and data sharing, no standards for serial numbers, unregulated online marketplaces rife with illicit sales - it all adds up to a very profitable crime that is nearly without consequence,” he says.

Allard says add to that a black market “fueled by cyclists” looking for deals in online used marketplaces and in-store. Detective Brunt says the VPD is watching a guy living outside of Vancouver. “He comes to the Downtown Eastside and buys bikes off the thieves. He's obviously the fence, takes them back to his home city and advertises them on Craigslist," he says.

When caught, does anything happen to bike thieves or fencers? Brunt says the problem is proving that they had the knowledge that the bicycle was stolen. Sometimes bikes may change hands four or five times in an hour. “That's the hard part for us. We just arrested a guy who broke into a truck in Kelowna, stole the garage door clicker and drove back to the victim's home (using ICBC info in the glove compartment), and stole two bikes worth $16,000 and other property. We caught him selling the bikes on Craigslist through Project 529. We arrested him in the stolen truck with the stolen property. That's a slam-dunk,” he says. He credits the Project 529 app for helping police be successful at arresting and charging these people.

Along with the app, The West-End Coal Harbour Community Policing Office is one of the many places in Vancouver including participating bike shops where you can physically register your bike with Project 529. Allard says this process establishes ownership. “We capture everything we can about the bike - including photos - with as little other info as necessary to contact the owner (usually just an email address). If a bike goes missing, the owner can use our app to immediately get the word out to cyclists in the community with photos of the bike to engage them to look out for it, post a reward, etc. They can also send the notice out over social media, or even print posters with hang-tags,” Allard says. Police then have a dashboard of stolen bikes, not just in their jurisdiction but across all of North America.

So, is enough being done by authorities to tackle bike theft? Allard says “no” broadly but “nearly” when it comes to Vancouver specifically.

“VPD has really leaned on this problem with a good strategy, resource commitment, and cooperation across B.C. agencies and the private sector to accomplish a lot. In five years, they managed to not just curb the dramatic growth of theft but reduce it by about 40 percent. Their reunions of bikes to victims have doubled or tripled. This is an outsized result versus any other city that we’ve seen in the eight years we’ve been working on this problem,” he says.

Vancouver bike thefts, by the numbers. Graph courtesy of Vancouver Police Department) — Vancouver bike thefts, by the numbers.
*Graph courtesy of Vancouver Police Department)*

Detective Brunt says bait bikes are still being used by police in the city to nab thieves, with some success. "We do bait bikes as much as we can. Definitely in the summer. That depends on manpower and staffing levels. But when we get a problem area, we focus our property crime team resources to try and lower the thefts in those areas." An example is Granville Island which was number one in bike thefts in Vancouver. "We did a loaner lock and bike valet program involving various levels of government, bike registration, bait bikes, and public information signs. We took them from three stolen bikes a day to about two bikes a week,” he says.

Kareem Marie also feels building owners and property managers in the West End need to step up and ensure the safety of their tenants. Detective Brunt agrees, especially when it comes to secure bike lockers in the right locations. He cites one common wrong location. “Putting bike rooms on the fifth floor of your garage where no one can see, no one can hear. Outta sight, outta mind. Crooks love that," he says.

Marie remains angry and wants the VPD to make an example of bike thieves. “They have no life but to steal and think it is ok to steal and sell a $3,500 bike for a $50 damn fix. Those grey areas and loopholes that are being exploited need to be tackled and dealt with. It is so annoying to not even feel safe,” he says.

Allard with Project 529 feels there’s a lot of responsibility you can distribute to many different actors. “Vancouver is off to a good start on many of these tactics, but if you want to see more progress in Vancouver, dialing up the heat across these players is what’s going to get the next ten percent reduction. It’s far from a “one-party” problem,” he says.

The big picture on bike-theft in North America. (Courtesy of Project 529) — The big picture on bike-theft in North America. *(Courtesy of Project 529)*

Allard maintains Vancouver is a terrific cycling city with leadership that does care about making cycling great. “I would say that the first two phases to attack bike theft - led largely by the VPD - are a clear indication that the strategy works. But phase three is going to require the community to shift gears and do more,” he says.

Allard advises buying a good lock and always locking the wheel and frame, registering with Project 529, reporting stolen bikes (or wheels and accessories) to the police so they can size up the problem, look for patterns, and spread the word. “This is a community problem and can only be improved through community action. Your role doesn’t stop with protecting your bike, but looking out for fellow riders, sharing knowledge about the program, engaging with your local shop, and making your concerns heard to policymakers and budget managers.”