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Permalink Reply by Far'arned Retrogrumpalunkus #63 on April 10, 2013 at 6:55am

It's hard to get data on unreported thefts.  I've talked to people who have told me they  have had bikes stolen and who didn't know about the CSBR and didn't want to talk to the police.  There is a whole lot of folks who wouldn't call the police under any circumstances -much less to report a cheap BSO being stolen.

But again, that is all anecdotal.  We don't even know if the unreported/under-reported bikes track with the reported data seasonally, or with the types of bikes stolen.  

There is just no way to know.  What we do know is there is a lot of bike theft in this town.  It's an easy crime that carries very little risk and there are plenty of victims to steal from and plenty of folks willing to buy on the other end.  Even with marginal profits these guys can make up for that in volume.  And since the risk is nearly zero and supply and demand nearly bottomless they can make a killing with volume even when each individual job doesn't net a lot of cash.  

I think this is why so many low-end bikes get targeted.  A quick $30-50 bucks isn't bad for 5 minutes of time invested at near-zero risk.   I just wonder how many times some of these low-end BSO's get stolen, sold in back alleys, and eventually re-stolen over the course of their short service lives?

h' 1.0 said:

Anecdotally, but based on reading several thousand reports as they come in, there is certainly a trend of folks who don't ride daily digging out and airing up the bikes on "nice" days, and these folks tend to not own appropriate locks.  Very frequent picture on these days: bike locked to fence with thin cable lock stolen from a lakefront park.  If anyone here wanted to kick some bike thief butt I'll bet you could catch at least one in the act in such a place on such a day, with a couple-hour time investment.

(these sort of thefts are going to be likely to be undereported as well, since to these folks it's more of an annoyance than a real problem.)

Anne Alt said:

Warmer weather usually means more people riding, which one would assume to relate to more bikes being locked up outside -> more thefts. 

Justin B Newman said:

It happens I have the CSBR's still-in-beta stats generator handy. For 2012, monthly report counts to the Chicago Stolen Bike Registry were as follows.

Jan: 26

Feb: 31

Mar: 42

Apr: 56

May: 84

Jun: 144

Jul: 191

Aug: 155

Sep: 154

Oct: 103

Nov: 62

Dec: 33

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