Bike stolen, how did they do it??
 

So my friend woke up this morning to find his bike gone from his balcony, and these left behind:

http://piratescott.com/webimages/stolen.jpg

WTF? Assuming these scissors and pliers were used to cut the lock, how did they do it?

clamped the scissors down on the cable using the vise grips would be my guess. never overnight without a good U-lock and good cable/chain.

That was his theory... clamp the scissors and wind them around the cable for... a while.

that's a nice vice grip. at least he got something in return. :o

Yea, maybe he can use it to steal the bike back :)

Might have been quicker to run through the numbers on that lock and work out the combination. Give it a try sometime. It doesn't take very long.

Vise grips also have a cutting jaw(located on the inside past the teeth)
That's where the cable was cut...
it had nothing to do w/the scissors. That's how he broke them.

Did you run prints yet?

Yeah, I would think they used the scissors, broke them, then used the vise grip cutting edge. You can get some powerful leverage with those things.

4 digits. 10,000 possible combinations. If you assume that the their could take 1 try every second, and that the their would run through 1/2 the available numbers until they were successful, it would take 83 minutes. I'll bet it would be much faster to use the scissors and vise grip.

Actually he is right, those locks are easy to open. One does not have to try the numbers randomly. They make pretty distinctive cllicks....have found most locks like this do. If you do it a few times, you can open this lock in a few seconds. Try it. Just don't be fooled by the 0....it makes a unique sound when it falls into place. An old fashioned master lock with a dial is much harder to open.

Looks like a lock a friend of mine has with a false combination. The lock actually opens with a key, and the combination is just there to distract the thief for a bit.

Steve

Clever. Until the thing is cut with vice grips.

what floor was the balcony on?

Probably stolen too. :)

Seriously, the tools probably have prints, the thieves probably have a record but sadly the police wont' bother to lift and run the prints .

Real "vise grips" have the cutter. That looks like a cheap locking pliers'. I don't see any evidence of the cutting jaw. Most cheap knock offs do not have that feature.

I have to agree that they used the locking pliers on the scissor to cut the cable. Otherwise why would there be a broken scissor there?

wild guess here.....

Scissors to cut the plastic coating then something to slowly grind and chew through the cable because it certainly isn't a clean cut.

Now wouldn't that be a laugh if some dum dum thought they could cut clean through the cable w/ the scissors.:lol:

Ok, i gotta ask this.

As a thief, WTF would you pack a scissor and a vise grip to steal a bike...

And on the other hand, if you were planning to steal the bike, wouldn't you pack something good??

And, if it wasn't a planned theft, just a crime of opportunity, WTF would someone just be out and about, with a scissor and vise grips??



I know, thieves aren't the brightest, but come on, a pair of bolt cutters would be a little smarter.....

Someone at work found a cable bike combination lock that was locked. One of the guys ask to see it. He had it open within 2 minutes. He said it goes by feel.

Walking around with bolt cutters would be a little more obvious than, say, a little tool belt with scissors and vise grips.

Too bad that it's a knockoff pair, too; the original Vise-Grip is closing its factory in Nebraska, and the company's owners are moving production overseas.

Don't know if this would work for the lock above, but here is a video on youtube showing an example. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvfj4D8yUXw

good call, if 1st floor over night several locks might not help.

Check out:

http://www.locksport.com/

Locks are just new puzzles to some.

Also, too late now. But a noise maker might help. My buddy used to have a bag of aluminum cans with fishing line through it, hed hoop the line around the pedal at night and if grabbed from the back yard it would make all kinds of noise. Well there was the dog factor too. LOL

Exactly. Those "vice grips" are Chinese knock offs. Why on Earth would a thief leave the implements of the theft behind?

+1. This is obviously a job done by a teenager who lives within spitting distance of you. Your bike is probably not more than 1000' from you as we speak, at least for a day or so until they can sell it.

Register your stolen Serial # with the police and watch Craigslist and ebay and best of luck.

I would think that if the scissors were used to actually cut the cable, there'd be a significant amount of wear on them. Can't really tell from the photo though with the way the scissors are closed.