Bicycle thefts on the rise in Eugene.

Byline: Bill Bishop The Register-Guard

Eugene's bike thieves are on a roll that will total $595,000 worth of bikes stolen from 1,200 cyclists by year's end, prompting police and bike shop owners to urge riders to double up on their locks and to report suspicious bicycle sellers.

Bike thefts are up 38 percent from the same period last year, crime data shows. And that follows a 23 percent increase last year over 2001. In Springfield, bike thefts are up 14 percent over last year.

Eugene's current surge is the highest reported number of bike thefts since 1997, when cyclists reported 1,207 bikes stolen, police spokeswoman Kerry Delf says.

Police believe the crime spree is driven by individuals in loose networks that trade stolen property for drugs. They aren't ruling out an organized crime gang, but they have no evidence of any working in the area. Thieves often try to sell a bike within minutes for quick cash, although hundreds are abandoned for no clear reason.

"You have people who are using so much methamphetamine, sometimes rational thought doesn't enter into it," says Eugene police Detective Scott Fellman.

The University of Oregon campus and Eugene's downtown are bike theft hotspots, but an unlocked bike is not safe in any neighborhood, Fellman says.

In the past, the Eugene police Rapid Deployment Unit conducted stings in high-theft areas, but the unit is temporarily disbanded due to a shortage of personnel and money, Fellman says.

"There is lots more we could do, that we'd love to do, that we don't have the time to do," he says.

New UO students are particularly vulnerable because they don't grasp how rampant bike theft is or how skilled and bold the thieves have become, says Sue Kelley, owner of Blue Heron Bicycles on 13th Avenue just west of campus.

"We always have an epidemic in late September, early October," says Kelley, who has owned the business since 1984. Kelley requires customers who rent bikes from her shop to use two locking systems and she has never had a rental bike stolen in 19 years. Thieves take the path of least resistance, she says.

"You're trying to make your bike better-locked than the others," Kelley says.

Unlocked bikes get stolen from second-story balconies, she says. Bikes locked to chain-link fences or small trees disappear as fast as a thief can snip the fence or tree with bolt cutters. The UO recently purchased 60 new enclosed bike lockers at a cost of about $1,000 each. The UO also is buying five new chain-link cages, each able to hold 60 bikes, at a total cost of about $50,000. Riders pay to lock a bike inside a cage or locker. But bike theft remains so common on campus that students are reminded of it as part of registration, UO interim Public Safety Director Tom Hicks says.

A cheap bike is no less likely to be stolen than a very expensive bike, says Jay Loew, co-owner of Collins Cycle Shop in Eugene.

"People don't understand how prolific it is. They don't think it will happen to them," Loew says. "You really need two different locking systems."

Even a two-lock system is not an absolute guarantee, shop owners agree. Some thieves use a small car jack to break the popular U-locks. A few have learned to pick the cylinder locking mechanisms in U-locks, police and shop owners say. Many carry bolt cutters to sever small chains and cables. Some pry loaded bike racks off of vehicles.

"The thieves are very versatile," says Paul Nicholson, owner of Paul's Bicycle Way of Life in Eugene. "Personally, I believe these crimes are being carried out by a relatively small number of people."

Although Nicholson says police could reduce the problem by setting up "stings" to catch the worst thieves at bike racks in high-theft areas, other shop owners say the problem is more deeply rooted in the area's drug scene and the lack of jail space to hold petty criminals when they're caught.

Kelley and Nicholson say the UO should provide more bike cages, while Loew says the problem is too big for police to solve without cyclists and the community playing a role.

Bike thieves are prosecuted like any other thief, but it's often difficult to make a solid case against a bike thief or those who buy bikes they know are stolen, Chief Deputy Lane County District Attorney Kent Mortimore says.

Cyclists and the public can help by reporting suspicious bike sellers, along with physical descriptions of them, the bike and any other information that can help police find the suspect, Mortimore says. Cyclists should record their bike serial numbers to report to police in order to prove a particular bike is stolen.

"That's what it takes to catch these folks. If we've got a case, we're going to prosecute it," Mortimore says. "This is one of the things that makes this community less enjoyable."

For theft victims, the loss can be emotional as well as economic, says Kevin Mackin, a 19-year-old Lane Community College student from Portland.

Mackin owned a fairly common $300 mountain bike that he rode to work, to visit his brother, to shop for groceries. He rolled up so many miles that he wore out the crankset bearings and had to replace them.

"It had become part of me," Mackin says.

One night he locked it to a guardrail - using a wire cable and U-lock - at the bus station in downtown Eugene. The next day it was gone.

"I'm pretty much stuck to my apartment now. I take the bus," Mackin says. "I don't expect to get it back."

A couple of hundred unclaimed bikes find their way to the Eugene police evidence storage area every year. If their owners don't have the serial number or didn't report the theft, the bikes are auctioned every two months or so to free up space for new arrivals.

Police used to allow cyclists to check the evidence area for their missing bikes, but stopped because too many were trying to claim bikes they didn't own and it took too much police time to determine which were legitimate claims.

Currently, Eugene police are able to return stolen bikes to their owners in about 5 percent of cases, Fellman says. Last week, police had 55 unclaimed bikes - ranging from bare frames to complete bikes worth well more than $1,000. It had been only two weeks since the last auction. "The biggest thing for getting your bike back is to have your serial number written down some place safe and report the theft immediately," Fellman says.

That's what Jake Nitchals did after his brand new $850 mountain bike was stolen within a two-hour period one night in June while Nitchals was at a tavern celebrating being finished with final exams. "It was locked right," Nitchals says. The thief also took the U-lock, leaving no evidence. Nitchals suspects his lock was picked.

Nitchals, who works at Collins Cycle while attending school, financed a new bike and invested in a $110 Kryptonite Fahgettaboudit lock, a nine-pound Godzilla-strength alloy chain with a heavy duty lock and new-style key.

Lock technology is the arms race in the war against bike thieves, says Donna Tocci, spokeswoman for Kryptonite, the lock company that developed the ubiquitous U-lock more than 30 years ago and manufactures locks for a variety of brands.

Thieves continually teach one another the tricks of the trade, and they now have the Internet as a source for lock-picking tools, she says. Eugene has the distinction of having the most bike thefts attributed to thieves picking the cylinder locks that are commonly used in U-locks of all brands, she says.

"We don't have that problem around the country. I can't say we've never seen that. It's minimal. It's not like in Eugene," she says. "Thieves figure things out. That's how we get better. We live to frustrate thieves."

Kryptonite developed a new cylinder lock that is harder to pick for its newer U-locks, she says. But older locks of all brands are vulnerable to experienced thieves, so local riders should adopt a second lock - such as a cable-combination lock - in addition to a strong U-lock to lower their vulnerability, Tocci says.

"A double locking system is the best," she says. "Most thieves only carry one form of a defeating mechanism. If a thief has got a picking tool, that's not going to work on a cable."

Kelley says a rider's best defense is to adopt the right attitude. "You need to seriously decide that you want your bike more than they want it," she says.

THWART

A THIEF

Lock to a fixed, hard object, such as a bike rack.

Use a strong U-lock and a second, different kind of lock.

Secure quick-release wheels and seat by weaving a cable through them to the U-lock.

Face the locking mechanism toward the ground to make it less vulnerable to picking, but keep the lock off the ground so it cannot be hammered.

When using a U-lock, enclose a wheel, the frame and the bike rack to avoid leaving space within the "U" of the lock where a thief can break the lock.

Never lock up solely by a wheel.

Record the serial number. You can't claim a recovered bike without it.

Unlocked bikes in open garages, back yards and second-story balconies are easy targets. Always lock up.

- Kryptonite

CAPTION(S):

Eugene Police Detective Scott Fellman looks through the evidence locker at some of the hundreds of bicycles that have been recovered by police. Cyclists should record their bike's serial number to report to police to prove that a particular bike is stolen. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard Sue Kelley shows off some of the locks that she sells at Blue Heron Bikes to help stop thieves around the UO campus.