Stolen Bikes

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My father works at a Somerville Homeless Shelter on College Ave. and mentioned to me yesterday how often guests are showing up to the shelter with $600-$800 bikes that they've either stolen or have bought off other people in the square for $20. My father has warned the guests that if he sees anymore of them with bikes like these he is going to call the police, but I wanted to put out a heads up to everyone in this community.

Be very careful with your bikes, not like residents around here didn't know, but take every precaution to lock them up as well as you can. Be aware of your serial number in case the bike shows up at a police station and you've filed a report.

Comments

[xuth.livejournal.com]

By what means are you (or your father) determining that they are $800 bikes? I've seen several people in the area selling $100 bikes for $10 - $20 that they claim to have gotten in the trash and fixed up. While they certainly could be stealing them, I find it completely believable considering I've taken bikes out of peoples trash piles and fixed them / combined them with other trashed bikes and given them away. I've also seen bikes that definitely are in the $300 - $800 class being sold for $50 - $100 around the area or in two cases that I personally have seen abandoned by previous renters, just left in the basement (two different friends in two different duplexes). I guess all I'm saying is that there is a reasonable chance that the bicycles have entirely legitimate provenence. The odds of this increase considerably if you've got nothing better to do with your time than look for good deals.

[ukelele.livejournal.com]

"Don't lock your bike at Alewife" is something to keep in mind here. Anything that can be readily removed from a bike at Alewife (eg lights, cycle computer) will be, and that doesn't bode well for the bike itself.

[turil.livejournal.com]

My husband gave his commuter bike to a homeless guy a couple of weeks ago. He even gave the guy his helmet, too. He just grabbed one of the many bikes we've trashpicked, fixed it up, and was good to go the next day.

The bike he gave the guy wasn't a particularly expensive bike, though. But it looked pretty cool, and I can see that someone might imagine it was something fancy.

But yeah, I recommend keeping your bike inside if you're parking it for more than a few hours. And if you do park it outside, make sure it's in a busy area, not out back somewhere in the shadows. I've had bad luck parking at the Porter Square T station. Someone stole my handlebar grips there, for some bizarre reason.

[myselftheliar.livejournal.com]

agh yeah my bike was stolen last fall- right when I needed it most

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

This Somerville Homeless Shelter needs to get out of town. It is a nuisence.

[mattdm [typekey.com] (from livejournal.com)]

Heh. Well, this clears up the "right-wing wacko or just a troll" question.

[cleanup-davissq.livejournal.com]

The homeless guys are turning up at the shelter with stolen bikes??? How would you feel if it was your hard earned purchase? This is ridiculous. Why do people want to support this type of criminal behaviour? I do not understand.

[lidiya6.livejournal.com]

seems like both to me

[ron_newman]

I agree, and we really don't need either one here.

[xuth.livejournal.com]

while I'm not happy with right-wing wackos I have trouble singling them out as opposed to left-wing wackos that are tolerated here. Trolls otoh...