FWIW, there's an interesting couple of pages on organized bicycle
theft rings in the Midwest around the turn of the century (late 1800's)
in Smith's Social History of the Bicycle.

These guys would hit a town, say Gary, Indiana, steal every bicycle they
could grab, load them on a train car, and sell them in some other city.

So, yeah, scumbag thieves are not recent additions to society, and
bicycles have always been pretty popular targets for them.

Very portable, hard to trace, of significant value for the size of the item,
available in large numbers, relatively easy to steal.......long list of attributes.