Theft alert - Ravenswood Metra Stop

I was at Psycho in Grant Park last night, so I didn't get back to my bike at the South end of the stop until around 11, but when I did I saw a u-lock sitting in the space next to mine on the rack. It was a Kryptonite, older, but not totally cheap. It had been cut in two- on the side opposite the key, so that once cut, the shackle could just come out of the bar.

I have no idea what bike was locked with it, but it looks like whoever stole the bike, they had time to saw the u-lock in two. It was a very clean cut, and I couldn't see any saw blade marks, so my money is on an angle grinder with a cutting wheel on it. There were a few starts along with the cut that went through, so I'm not sure if they had tried before and the owner just didn't notice, or it just took them a couple of times to get a good spot to saw through.

A sawed through u-lock seems like a sign that a thief is specifically targeting bikes on those racks, and coming to get them when no one is around, rather than just the odd hooligan snipping a cable and taking off with a bike.

Just thought I'd send out a word of caution.

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Permalink Reply by Julie Aberman (Hochstadter) on August 12, 2009 at 4:43am
thanks for the heads up.
Permalink Reply by cutifly on August 12, 2009 at 11:16am
Lets go get em, and we can U lock them to the Rack (by the ankle) and we can see if they saw themselves loose then. send a note off list, I have a decent bait bike and can arrange cooperation from Chicago PD.
Permalink Reply by Chucko on August 12, 2009 at 1:07pm
Yep, totally. Just the first time in a while I've seen the lock laying behind and could examine exactly what happened to it. And targeted theft scares me more than random theft because the bike wasn't locked well enough (ie with a cable). In the 7 or so years I've been riding to that stop to get out of the city I've only seen a handful of thefts, and they've generally been cut cables.

By the way, I'm not an idiot. I know bikes are stolen everywhere every day.

h3 said:
There are hundreds of lock pieces on/near racks all over the city, especially Metra stations.
The Ravenswood and the Clybourn stations are two places where you're likely to get a U-lock cut. Have you never looked at this, Chucko? "Professional" theives are targeting specific places in the city every day.
Permalink Reply by Chucko on August 12, 2009 at 1:08pm
Seriously, they were everywhere! When we left from the North side of the park, there was one parked on every single tree- it was a really cool picture, light reflecting off all the metal amongst the trees in the dark.

Video_Drome said:
I was at Psycho last night too. a zillion bikes.
Permalink Reply by cutifly on August 12, 2009 at 2:47pm
OK, lol. Some old guy on a moped with a non-running engine said he see's you out by elmhurst road. Dig
Permalink Reply by Tank-Ridin' Ryan on August 12, 2009 at 4:34pm
The ankle sawing is a reference to the movie Saw (the first one, before they became idiotic gorefests).

M.A.R.K. said:
Why by the ankle, why not by the neck like in Breaking Bad?
cutifly said:
Lets go get em, and we can U lock them to the Rack (by the ankle) and we can see if they saw themselves loose then. send a note off list, I have a decent bait bike and can arrange cooperation from Chicago PD.

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