Another garage burglary resulting in an e-bike theft. This one was reported by Julie:
This was stolen out of my garage on Alki on Sunday night. RadTrike electric tricycle, gray. (Stock photo) It was brand new. They used bolt cutters to cut the lock off. They don’t have the key to turn on the battery. It’s a long shot but I’d love to get it back. 24-935601 police report.
That sucks :(. Also idk if it’s still the case with newer models, but you can typically unlock a radpower battery lock using a metal nail file. Not even lock picking tools, just push what is effectively a blank key in there and turn.
Any chance the ebike thefts are all purchased at the same store and the thieves have gotten access to a customer list?
Seems like we’ve read about many similar incidents the past few months. Perhaps it’s simply the huge increase in e-bikes ownership makes these opportunities easier even if garage break-ins have stayed steady (I don’t know that stat). I hope it’s not casing people riding their bikes to see where they live. These bikes are so expensive now, and so many people are making the bet they can replace a car, it’s really a huge impact.Daniel is absolutely correct, that version of Rad’s battery lock is bad, shameful, pathetic, pick your adjective. Unless they have somehow improved the lock I can’t believe Rad is still using that design on current models and not the new in-frame version which I assume is more secure. I had an incident two years ago where within 45 minutes of a nice Alki stop on the beach with my children, the battery from my RadWagon was gone. $550 to replace the battery. Now I feel I have to always take that heavy battery with me which is not an appealing solution.thanks for letting me rant…
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