Originally Posted by
zacster
What is it about bike theft anyway? Why are they such a target? Is someone going to get so much pleasure out of my old clunker that they would steal it? I never did get this. Not all bikes are valuable, most of the thefts are of old crappy bikes. Why are they stolen?
Different reasons why bikes are stolen...Big cities almost always have greater bike theft problem then small towns. The reason for this is , because there is a demand for stolen bikes. As long as there is a demand then there will be theft...Crackheads know that they can easily sell a stolen bike , to get their fix.
Then there are professional bike thieves who make profits out of selling stolen bikes and bike parts...And some people steal them, maybe because they have a huge bike fetish.
Originally Posted by
zacster
Every now and then I read about a police raid of someone's house where there were bikes stacked up to the ceiling. The "owner" always claims he buys them at garage sales, but it turns out that a large percentage of the thefts could be attributed to this one person over the last x number of years. There was someone in Toronto.
Yes Toronto is famous for one of the greatest bike thieves this world ever produced. The worst nightmare for Toronto cyclists. This guy was so good he made it all they way to Wikipedia. You can read his resume and profile here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IgorKenk
Even after he was arrested the city of Toronto still gets 2000-3000 bikes stolen during some years.