West Seattle Crime Watch: Another bicycle theft – rack taken, too

Another bicycle stolen in the Admiral area, and this time the thieves took the rack, too:

My daughter’s bike was U-locked to the bike rack at 41st and Admiral (Friday) night. As of (Saturday) morning, rack and bike were gone: The bike is a silver-grey Cannondale CAAD 8 with blue tape on the handlebars. The theft has been reported to the police.

15 Replies to "West Seattle Crime Watch: Another bicycle theft - rack taken, too"

  • heather May 17, 2015 (10:07 am)

    Seriously?

  • Chad May 17, 2015 (11:11 am)

    That bike was locked to the rack all week long. Such a bummer.

  • Eric1 May 17, 2015 (12:01 pm)

    If thieves would just get a real job, it would probably involve less work and more pay. Then I wouldn’t be such a hater.

  • JanS May 17, 2015 (12:41 pm)

    how much work was that, and no one saw them doing it? whoa…

  • al May 17, 2015 (2:42 pm)

    OMG! How low can they get??

  • Mike May 17, 2015 (2:48 pm)

    wow, somebody must have a portable impact wrench to remove the entire rack that easily. Assuming it has enough power to remove the bolts that hold the rack down, it would take less than 30 seconds to take all that stuff away.
    .
    Maybe we need to pour concrete over the bolt plates and bolts too? That’s pretty brazen to steal that entire rack with bike.

  • Als May 17, 2015 (3:14 pm)

    Do you have a pic of the bike??

    • WSB May 17, 2015 (3:50 pm)

      For this one, they sent me a picture of a “similar” bike. But we can’t publish photos like that unless we know for sure that the sender has the right to grant publication rights – sometimes people send photos out of catalogs, screengrabbed off websites, etc. – and I got distracted before sending her that question.

  • CMc May 17, 2015 (5:32 pm)

    Sorry, we couldn’t find a picture of the bike. Thanks for asking.

  • junctioneer May 17, 2015 (8:21 pm)

    This bike was here all week? I noticed the same or a similar bike earlier in the week, too. I noticed it because it was a bright, pretty bike and the front wheel was locked with the rear wheel to the frame and the bike rack (a good thing, but at first I thought the front wheel had been stolen).

    If it is the same bike, I sympathize with the cyclist but (obviously too late) sadly and strongly caution anyone ever leaving a bike attached to any rack overnight, especially in such a prominent location. Thieves notice bikes that are parked regularly in the same spot. Especially if it’s left there for many days, or worse, overnight.

  • Craig May 17, 2015 (10:13 pm)

    That bike rack is in front of Starbucks. Crazy theft! It must have been some serious late night work to not have someone see them take the 2 bolts off and cart off the bike + rack. I say two bolts because that’s all I can see in this Google street maps pic of the rack.
    https://goo.gl/maps/2F1ZZ

  • Mike May 18, 2015 (6:17 am)

    Keep an eye on Craigslist. I love CL, but it’s a haven for theft sales. Did the bicycle owner keep a record of the serial number?
    .
    I found this, not sure it’s much help now for this person but maybe others will take part? https://www.nationalbikeregistry.com/howitworks.html
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    Granted it’s only useful if law enforcement gets the bike or a bike shop/buyer checks to see if it’s stolen prior to purchase/trade-in.
    .
    Does Stu have any insight on how that might help track it down? He’s in the know of how a bicycle shop would deal with trade-in/consignment. I assume they do a bit of background before taking in a bike for sale. Service probably not, that would take up a lot of service time to just check every bike.

  • J9remix May 18, 2015 (6:52 am)

    This is probably about drug addiction. Heroin and meth addiction is rampant and addicts will do just about anything to get a fix. An uptick in crime doesn’t necessarily mean they need to “get a job” the problem is more than that.

  • David Kannas May 20, 2015 (8:00 am)

    My second bike in two years was just stolen from where they were locked. The second one was cable locked (never a good idea) to a rack in front of the main entrance to SPD’s Headquarters building at 610 fifth. It was midday with an officer just about thirty feet away. Bike thefts are epidemic in Seattle, just as auto thefts were a few years ago. Both of my stolen bikes were pricey ones with a lot of extras attached to them. Both thefts are felonies if charged. Bike theft is no small deal and should be viewed as such.

    • WSB May 20, 2015 (8:08 am)

      David – That’s why we report bike thefts with as much gravity as auto thefts …whether they are “pricey” or not. Sorry to hear about yours.

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