stolen bike - college ave

[eatabananaortwo.livejournal.com]

Hello everyone

My friend had her bike stolen last night from her front porch, and she doesn't know what to do
She lives on College Ave and she thought it was a safe street...
The poor thing is kinda frantic, and I thought I'd help her out by posting this here.
This is what her bike looks like. It's a brand new purple Schwinn ranger. She already had a bike and a car stolen before, and she's getting kinda bitter about this area... :(

What should she do at this point???
Thanks

Comments

[chenoameg.livejournal.com]

I assume she has called the police to report it?

[ad-lib.livejournal.com]

call the police. see if she has the serial number so if they find it they can track it down.

[inahandbasket]

Buy a U-lock and use it?

[ifotismeni]

dare i ask what kind of lock she used? not to implicate, but rather for research -- i'm curious if i should get a NYC fuggedaboudit lock instead of a u-lock or something.

[jenskot.livejournal.com]

Even if she does have a U-lock, I wouldn't trust anything overnight - my nieghbor had someone smash his porch railing to steal his bike. My roommate and I have resigned ourselves to keeping the bikes in our living room... :(

[chaiya.livejournal.com]

Too late for some of the registration measures that the police and schools of the area encourage, but if she gets a new one, she should keep records of the registration number, sale date & price (in case she can get tenant's or owner's insurance or something to cover it), and locations she's registered it (near work and home).

Sorry to hear it ... :(

[srakkt.livejournal.com]

So the first thing is to cal the police and report the theft. In the report include the serial number of the bicycle.

The next thing to do is to call her insurance company and file a renters' insurance claim, and give them the police report number.

[purpless77.livejournal.com]

What is it with people thinking they live on a safe street so they can be careless. Look at Somerville as whole city and not just from street to street. It is a city and there is crime. I'm shocked that after having a car stolen and another bike stolen that she would even chance leaving this one out. Where is the common sense nowadays.

It's a nice bike and I agree with previous posts call the police to report it. A lot of the time stolen bikes get ridden around for a bit then left places. She could also try walking the area and the bike trail to see if someone left it around. Then tell her to please learn this time.

Report it to the police.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Also:
1. Keep an eye on Craiglist (ebay too, perhaps) for people who might try to sell the bike
2. Walk around Tufts and Harvard looking for it. The color is quite noticeable.

[tfarrell.livejournal.com]

"Safe" and "no thefts" are different things. She may be relatively unlikely to be harmed in that area, but that doesn't mean stuff won't be stolen.

It's sad but true that a certain percentage of people tend to steal things. This is true anywhere. When you live in a place where people are densely populated, which is to say, any city, you have more people in any area, which means more thieves. Leaving anything outdoors in full view in Somerville is just a way of tempting thieves. That doesn't mean Somerville is a bad place, it's just the reality of living in any semi-urban area.

You can reduce the likelihood of an outside bike being stolen in several ways:
1) Use an excellent quality U lock.
2) Lock the bike to something that isn't easily removed or breakable. Locking it to a porch post isn't good, that can be sawed or broken. You may not have something suitable.
3) When putting the lock on the bike, ensure that it passes around the rear wheel and part of the frame and whatever it's being locked to.
4) Get a bike with a quick-release front wheel, and maybe a quick release seat, and take it (them) off of the bike and take it (them) with you.
5) Don't leave any accessories, such as lights or water bottles, on the bike.
6) Get a cheap-looking bike.
7) Lock up the bike someplace where it can't be seen from the street, and remove anything from your porch that isn't part of the building. Thieves are often opportunist: if they see something they want to steal, they will walk onto your porch to do so, but if they don't see anything, they're unlikely to walk onto your porch to look for stuff to steal.

Speaking as a formerly avid biker, I also want to suggest that keeping the bike indoors is much better for the bike. Leaving a bike outdoors often, even if it's under a roof, leads to much more and faster rust. If you don't want to deal with carrying a full size bicycle into your home or finding space for it, I certainly don't blame you, but you might want to consider a folding bike that you can fold up and carry in and stash in a closet when you aren't using it.

Thanks for the concern...but i'm not frantic just jaded

[emilyroxsox.livejournal.com]

So I'm the one with the stolen bike. I really appreciate that Sun felt the need to put this out there but I don't think she meant to put it out so that everyone could assume how dumb I am for leaving my bike out. Agreed, but we don't have room in my apartment, I live in a tiny room that isn't even really supposed to be a bedroom so I can save money while I get ready for nursing school. I come from a much more urban area where I grew up worrying about getting shot rather than having my bike stolen, we had bikes and car windows stolen, and I was home during an attempted break-in when I was 16 of which I did call the police; hence me not reporting to the police that my bike of which target sells about 5000 a year was stolen.

I think its fine to report that to the police, but I am choosing not to because there is no proof. I had my car stolen two years ago by MIT (and yes it was locked and it was a crappy 1998 neon) and this stuff happens. I don't think somerville is unsafe just because my bike was stolen. I just think it sucks that I got it stolen. I had a u-lock and cable lock on it for all you people that think i'm dumb. The person who left his bike unlocked had a trek, so it wasn't a lame bike that they chose not to take. I'm not going to pay 300 dollars for renters insurance when the bike was 150 bucks. So anywhooo thanks for the help, (I wasn't frantic by the way just mad, that was Sun's poetic license). I've been looking at craigslist and I went to some of the local bike shops too.. So there, I've defended myself, don't just assume people are stupid. I'm not stupid just jaded (but I will vote come November 2nd! ;) )