These two bikes at the University of Texas have been locked there for at least 10 months (well, the blue one has, though the other has been there for months too.) Of course, they're not exactly desirable bikes.
One thing that's probably wrong with closetbiker's math is that I'm guessing the stolen bikes figure is based on those reported to the police? Many people don't report their stolen bikes to the police -- perhaps because they figure it's a lost cause, the bike isn't worth anything, because they don't have a serial number or receipt (not that they're needed, but they're certainly nice), perhaps because the bike was stolen originally? Dunno.
I also doubt that the police really do recover half of the stolen bikes -- that seems way too high. Though perhaps Vancouver police are different than Austin police?
And quite often people steal parts off of bikes rather than whole bikes -- if they steal your wheel rather than your bike, it doesn't count as a stolen bike, even if replacing that one wheel costs you more than the the entire bike did.