Pricey e-bike targeted by Vancouver thieves despite multiple levels of security
Credit to Author: Gordon McIntyre| Date: Fri, 21 Feb 2020 01:43:18 +0000
As soon as Keane Gruending saw the gaping hole in the wire mesh of the bike locker in his apartment building on Monday morning, his heart sank.
Gone was his $3,000 Cube Hybrid One, the electric bike he and his wife relied upon to transport groceries and haul their child around.
“We treated it like the family station wagon,” said Gruending.
He and his wife, who live in a 700-square-foot, one-bedroom flat with their little girl, are car-free. They have a couple of other bikes for regular cycling, and a cargo bike. This was the third time the bike locker inside the apartment near Main and Broadway in Vancouver has been broken into, with either bikes or parts stolen.
“We keep upgrading security after each break-in.”
Gruending hadn’t seen video footage, but was told by someone who had that apparently two men with an iron bar and cutting tools broke into the building’s lobby sometime overnight, then broke into the underground parking.
From there, they cut a hole in the bike cage and pried his ABUS chain lock with the iron bar they had. His ABUS folding lock disappeared with the bike, along with the child seat on the back.
“It’s like a lock only buys time,” Gruending said. “There’s always a work-around, I guess.
“And there’s a convenience factor: If your bike is behind an iron shield and anchored down, you’re going to use it less.”
According to a blog called Priceonomics, there are, broadly speaking, two types of bike thieves.
The first group are amateurs who snatch bikes on the street and sell them quickly for pennies on the dollar.
The other group are pros who target better bikes, have high-end lock-breaking tools, and resell the bikes or their parts at just below market price, often online in other cities.
HUB, a Metro Vancouver bicycle advocacy group, suggests registering your bike with Project 529, using a good U-Lock or metal folding lock (never just a cable lock), replace quick-release seats and wheel attachments with bolts, and report a stolen bike immediately.
Keane Gruending had his e-bike stolen from his underground garage.
According to Vancouver Police Department figures, the number of bike thefts has remained fairly constant over the past three years, peaking at around 340 a month in summer and falling to about 65 a month in winter.
But since Project 529 began in October, 2015, the number of reported thefts is down 40 per cent, Const. Rob Brunt said, even as the number of e-bike thefts has risen.
“It’s probably about 15 per cent (of all bike thefts),” he said. “The problem is they’ve only been around for a couple of years, really, so it’s hard to tell if they’re more popular (for thieves), or if the number has increased because there are more of them on the street.
“Common sense says because of their value, they’re going to be the more popular bike to steal.”
New E-bikes can cost $2,000 to $16,000. According to one study the worldwide e-bike market was valued at US$15.42 billion in 2019, and is expected to grow by 6.21 per cent, compounded annually, during the next five years.
Riders in Metro Vancouver have registered more than 100,000 bikes with Project 529. One of the registry’s biggest challenges is that professional thieves often have buyers lined up before the theft and the bikes are sold within hours, Brunt said.
Gruending said his bike was not covered under his home insurance because the premiums to add bike coverage are exorbitant.
“It stings, it’s disheartening,” he said. “If you ask a bike rider, it hurts when your bike is stolen because people have an attachment to their bikes.”