Question About U Locks and Bike Theft
I will occasionally read through the Stolen Bike reports to see what are the latest trends. As was shown by a statistical report posted on this site last year, the majority of thefts are with bikes locked by cable or without a lock at all.
But I do se a disturbing number of bikes stolen that had been secured with a flat key type U Lock. I went through about 10 pages of the report yesterday and with one exception in all those cases of stolen bikes with ulocks the owner found the lock missing as well.
My operative assumption is that if somebody just cuts a lock they sure as well don't want to be caught/seen with a broken lock. And of course such lock has no value. This would explain my observation that the reports of cut cable locks normally include mention of the cut cable left at the scene.
So this brings up a number of questions:
1) If these locks aren't being cut is there some easy way to pick them? I assumed these locks for the last five years have required a cut to be removed.
2) Even if the locks are compromised, why would a thief take the lock with him? Is there some way to get replacement keys so the lock can be use? I know with kryptonite you need the original key number to get a replacement.
Just trying to understand what seems like strange behavior to me (writing as a non thief).
Views: 1740
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Kevin C Dormant on
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They sort of do (NewYork Fangettaboudit Mini).
Michelle Milham said:I really wish they made the mini evo 5 inch with the double bolts :/ No leverage space AND double bolts? heck yeah. Alas, they don't.
Kevin C said:With apologies to Archimedes, I don't know when or if Bicycling may have run such an article, but it is highly unlikely that a modern double bolt u-lock will be defeated by prying. The tool of choice these days is the cordless angle grinder.
Bruce Kolozy said:Didn't Bicycling magazine run an article some years back showing how easy it is/was to pry open a u-lock? It seems all you need is a bar or pipe long enough to apply sufficient force to pry the "u" out of the lock cylinder.
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Permalink Reply by Josh L. on
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As previous poster said, I am pretty sure these locks are being cut and not pried.
Getting back to the earlier discussion, I do notice that the cut u locks are not taking place in the loop. More frequently they are on places on the North side where it seems the perp can work in a more isolated environment and a loud sound may be dismissed as renovation work or something like that.
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I agree that most cut u-locks are not occurring in the Loop. Exceptions to that "rule" would be areas where there are large clusters of bikes that are likely locked for an extended period of time; i.e. train stations (Amtrak, METRA) and office buildings with large outdoor bike parking areas. Once a bike is locked there, it is a safe assumption that the target will be there for many hours.
The presence of security guards, video surveillance and/or pedestrian traffic does not seem to be much of a deterrent. The CSBR requests and occasionally receives clips of video surveillance footage when a victim has obtained it. It is often of poor quality and grainy and other than depicting a bike theft, contains very little useful detail about the identity of the perpetrator. Cable lock thefts take less than 30 seconds. Angle grinder u-lock thefts-less than a minute. I suspect that most bystanders are either oblivious to the theft taking place, or if they notice at all, conclude that surely the person operating the angle grinder on the street has some perfectly good reason for doing so.
Bike thieves don't get paid by the hour. They get paid by the piece. They have no incentive to spend 10 minutes trying to steal a properly locked bike when there's 5 poorly locked bikes 5 feet away. This is why so many of the reports to the CSBR are of poorly locked (lock type, location and/or structure it's locked to) or not locked at all. And this is why it matters how and where you lock your bike.
I've posted this video before, but here's an angle grinder theft on Clinton near Randolph, complete with bystanders and pretty high quality video surveillance. For those who don't want to watch the whole thing, you can tune in at about 7:00.
To my knowledge this thief was never caught and the bike was never recovered. This thief was working as an accomplice of a very prolific thief who was known to the CSBR and many on the Chainlink. That thief was eventually arrested by the Wilmette police for stealing some very expensive bikes from north shore METRA stations. He was eventually sentenced to 4 years, served two years and 4 months of that sentence and was paroled on 5/12/14. His probation period ends on 5/12/16.
jolondon30 said:As previous poster said, I am pretty sure these locks are being cut and not pried.
Getting back to the earlier discussion, I do notice that the cut u locks are not taking place in the loop. More frequently they are on places on the North side where it seems the perp can work in a more isolated environment and a loud sound may be dismissed as renovation work or something like that.
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Well said Kevin.I like your point that you only have to lock your bike safer than the bikes around you to increase your chances of no theft. That's why in the summer months I use a cable in addition to my ulock. Now the cable does protect the front wheel. But I know that if they cut the ulock the cable comes off as it is threaded through it. But my assumption is that it just is a visual deterrent to the perps if there are five other bikes nearby.
Your first point about large clusters is a surprise to me. I assume that there are fewer cut locks on the loop because they greater number of locked bikes and foot traffic makes it more likely for the perp to get caught. I would imagine getting caught - or even questioned why they have an angle grinder - is more likely to make somebody head to more deserted parts of the city. I believe the Metra lots are obviously quite deserted during the day.
Kevin C said:
I agree that most cut u-locks are not occurring in the Loop. Exceptions to that "rule" would be areas where there are large clusters of bikes that are likely locked for an extended period of time; i.e. train stations (Amtrak, METRA) and office buildings with large outdoor bike parking areas. Once a bike is locked there, it is a safe assumption that the target will be there for many hours.
The presence of security guards, video surveillance and/or pedestrian traffic does not seem to be much of a deterrent. The CSBR requests and occasionally receives clips of video surveillance footage when a victim has obtained it. It is often of poor quality and grainy and other than depicting a bike theft, contains very little useful detail about the identity of the perpetrator. Cable lock thefts take less than 30 seconds. Angle grinder u-lock thefts-less than a minute. I suspect that most bystanders are either oblivious to the theft taking place, or if they notice at all, conclude that surely the person operating the angle grinder on the street has some perfectly good reason for doing so.
Bike thieves don't get paid by the hour. They get paid by the piece. They have no incentive to spend 10 minutes trying to steal a properly locked bike when there's 5 poorly locked bikes 5 feet away. This is why so many of the reports to the CSBR are of poorly locked (lock type, location and/or structure it's locked to) or not locked at all. And this is why it matters how and where you lock your bike.
I've posted this video before, but here's an angle grinder theft on Clinton near Randolph, complete with bystanders and pretty high quality video surveillance. For those who don't want to watch the whole thing, you can tune in at about 7:00.
To my knowledge this thief was never caught and the bike was never recovered. This thief was working as an accomplice of a very prolific thief who was known to the CSBR and many on the Chainlink. That thief was eventually arrested by the Wilmette police for stealing some very expensive bikes from north shore METRA stations. He was eventually sentenced to 4 years, served two years and 4 months of that sentence and was paroled on 5/12/14. His probation period ends on 5/12/16.
jolondon30 said:As previous poster said, I am pretty sure these locks are being cut and not pried.
Getting back to the earlier discussion, I do notice that the cut u locks are not taking place in the loop. More frequently they are on places on the North side where it seems the perp can work in a more isolated environment and a loud sound may be dismissed as renovation work or something like that.
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Permalink Reply by Chris Mitchell on
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Or just do this-
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loyola red line 2.jpg, 232 KB
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I saw a video of a bearded bike guy from NY (I think). He went around grading peoples ability to lock their bikes properly. Very informative and funny.
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You may be referring to Hal Ruzal of Bike Habitat in NYC, though he usually doesn't have a beard.
Chris Mitchell said:I saw a video of a bearded bike guy from NY (I think). He went around grading peoples ability to lock their bikes properly. Very informative and funny.
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Sorry..may have gotten the dreads and beard (lack therof) confused. However, that is him for sure. Thanks for the links.
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Permalink Reply by James Bellefeuille on
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So my brand new bike was stolen recently. I bought a Masterlock U-Lock with Flat key. The whole lock was missing. Lost at Halsted and 15th pl in UIC/Pilsen area.
jolondon30 said:It would be interesting to see the results of a question regarding brand of lock that was removed (cut,l picked, etc.). Any reason you can;t do that? The data might highlight a vulnerability.
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Sorry to hear that your bike was stolen, James. Here's a past thread about How NOT to get your bike stolen. I'm not sure Masterlock makes a u-lock which is considered highly rated for theft deterrence/prevention. All of the risk factors for theft are additive; i.e. leaving a bike out at night, residential area, frame only locked, locked to a street sign are all factors which require greater precautions to prevent theft. (better lock, better locking technique, better locking location).
@jo: The reports to the CSBR are user-generated. Some minimal editing is sometimes done by the admins, but the data you see is the data we get. I stopped keeping track of this one a year or so ago, but roughly 1/3 of our reports include a serial number. Probably a few more than that bother to file a police report and provide a report number. I suppose we could add a field to identify the make and model of lock used, but I would guess the response rate would be less than a third. Even if we got complete responses, if three times as many Kryptonite locks are sold in Chicago as Abus locks, and three times as many theft victims use Kryptonite locks, what useable information have we learned?
James Bellefeuille said:So my brand new bike was stolen recently. I bought a Masterlock U-Lock with Flat key. The whole lock was missing. Lost at Halsted and 15th pl in UIC/Pilsen area.
jolondon30 said:It would be interesting to see the results of a question regarding brand of lock that was removed (cut,l picked, etc.). Any reason you can;t do that? The data might highlight a vulnerability.
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Well what we would learn is that if a brand of lock is reported for theft at a rate that's disproportionate to its sales volume, then the inference is that this lock has a vulnerability that the perps are exploiting. For example Bell locks are very cheap and not that widely used. If there were a lot of Bell thefts in relation to Kryptonite, we could assume that Bell's can be easily broken/defeated.
Kevin C said:Sorry to hear that your bike was stolen, James. Here's a past thread about How NOT to get your bike stolen. I'm not sure Masterlock makes a u-lock which is considered highly rated for theft deterrence/prevention. All of the risk factors for theft are additive; i.e. leaving a bike out at night, residential area, frame only locked, locked to a street sign are all factors which require greater precautions to prevent theft. (better lock, better locking technique, better locking location).
@jo: The reports to the CSBR are user-generated. Some minimal editing is sometimes done by the admins, but the data you see is the data we get. I stopped keeping track of this one a year or so ago, but roughly 1/3 of our reports include a serial number. Probably a few more than that bother to file a police report and provide a report number. I suppose we could add a field to identify the make and model of lock used, but I would guess the response rate would be less than a third. Even if we got complete responses, if three times as many Kryptonite locks are sold in Chicago as Abus locks, and three times as many theft victims use Kryptonite locks, what useable information have we learned?
James Bellefeuille said:So my brand new bike was stolen recently. I bought a Masterlock U-Lock with Flat key. The whole lock was missing. Lost at Halsted and 15th pl in UIC/Pilsen area.
jolondon30 said:It would be interesting to see the results of a question regarding brand of lock that was removed (cut,l picked, etc.). Any reason you can;t do that? The data might highlight a vulnerability.
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Agreed. Do you know that there's a ready source of sales volume by brand/by model? I have had some dealings with Kryptonite's brand manager. Eeeeeeverything is proprietary.
jolondon30 said:
Well what we would learn is that if a brand of lock is reported for theft at a rate that's disproportionate to its sales volume, then the inference is that this lock has a vulnerability that the perps are exploiting.
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