'DON'T STEAL BIKES BRO!' // REDUX

The original was here.

'DON'T STEAL BIKES BRO!'

Bike Thief vs Street Justis from triple on Vimeo.

From Urban Cyclist via Prolly.

"Here's the story. I was having brunch on first ave and first street with a a couple of friends including Alfred .It was a pretty sunny day and a good there was a good amount of pedestrian traffic .Nothing unusual. Alfred went out to make a call and spotted someone looking over his bike. Nothing unusual ,he got a hot ass cannondale with hot ass wheels.the guy was average looking,had a helmet and a bag.looked like your average joe casual biker.Suddenly this dude gets on his knees and pulls out a drill.At first Alfred thought he wanted to steal his wheels,until he saw the drill.Is this what it has come out to?!people stealing bike with drills?Anyways as he was getting ready to drill the ulock,Alfred comes in the restaurant and yells,!yooooo someones trying to steal my bike,lets go get him.and let me tell you this ass hole tried stealing the wrong bike.first it was a bike messengers bike and second it was Alfred's bike and the motherFkr got a temper sometimes.so we roll out to this dude and start pounding him.my first instinct was to get my U lock and bang on him,but my bike was already locked up so , we bumbrushed this dude and started pounding him.Everybody is watching and wondering why this dude is being plumeted ,but at that point we don't give a fuck.we had to make sure this asshole dosen't do it again.me personal i have had 2 bikes stolen,in like a month apart.fuck that shit.he did't even look like a bike thief!so while pounding him i reach out to put my phone in my pocket and realized i had a camera on my wait.i pulled it out and captured the second half of the beating!

Sorry it's so hard to read, but you get the idea."

'No Reward'

Eki found this.

Help The Dudes Out: JP Revival Fund

You know about this incident already for sure, so if you're feeling for these guys, go ahead and help them out a little bit.

"Sitting around and waiting magically for our bikes to reappear is wishful thinking. So we thought we make a fundraiser to rebuild what we have lost. Any donation will be greatly appreciated. I’d do the same for you in you were in our shoes. For more information and to make a donation... go HERE!"

"Bike Lock with no key for sale. includes bike"

"Bike Lock with no key for sale.includes bike (£75)

I have a bike lock for sale that was an unwanted present. I have lost the key. The lock comes with a bike attached.

Please - no time wasters or anyone asking 1000 questions about if the bike can be ridden.

The lock DOES work.....and so does the bike. The bike has 2 wheels that have tyres that can be pumped up.

NIOTHING ELSE COMES WITH THE BIKE - OK?!

£75....can drop to £55.....don't ask me to go to £50 coz I'll just tell you about yourself."

Give him a call if you got interested.

King Of Bike Thieves Igor Kenk: 2865 bikes, cocaine, crack, 15 pounds of marijuana and a bronze sculpture of a centaur and a snake in battle

This is the best story ever. Or Worst. You need to read it. 

Some quotes:

"What exactly was he planning to do with 2,865 bicycles?"

"The  Toronto Police are baffled by what Igor Kenk planned to do with such a surplus of bikes. That is just one of many questions the police and others have been puzzling over since the arrest last month of Igor Kenk, the owner of a used-bike shop here."

"Mr. Kenk’s little shop, the Bicycle Clinic, appeared to be a black hole that consumed stolen bicycles. Bike theft victims regularly discovered their missing bicycles there, and were often able to recover them, either through vigorous argument or a payment of $30 or $40."

"That was just the beginning. An additional 200 bikes were seized in Mr. Kenk’s home. Ten landlords around the city reported that their garages had been rented by Mr. Kenk and were bulging with bicycles. 

As the police gathered the mounds of bikes, they also found cocaine, crack cocaine, about 15 pounds of marijuana and a stolen bronze sculpture of a centaur and a snake in battle."

"In the past, Mr. Kenk has said that he was accumulating bicycles in preparation for a severe oil shortage."

"Mr. Kenk portrayed himself as a crusader against theft and a protector of cast-off bicycles."

"Mr. Kenk holds a passport from Slovenia and has claimed he was a police officer and a former K.G.B. agent. He has shed little light since his arrest. After one court session, he told reporters, 'I’m a dead man.'"

Bikes Stolen In Helsinki Again

Yesterday two more bikes got stolen here in Helsinki; 

First the pictured green Velocab Berlin Rikshaw got stolen in Veräjämäki, then later in the evening Pauli's well-stickered Surly Steamroller got stolen from in front of the Bullman Bar on Fleminginkatu, Kallio.

Both the bikes were 1.) locked up and 2.) they are highly recognizable, so this super stupid. 

Let's hope they will find their way back to their lawful owners one way or the another. 

And that the thieves will get their asses kicked.  

EDIT.

As Konkeli pointed out, the Rikshaw was found quickly but Pauli's Steamroller is still missing.

Dutch Education: Learning To Steal A Bike

Once more concerning bike thieves, this time serious news from Amsterdam:

"AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - A Dutch cyclists lobby group plans to teach more people across the country how to steal bikes after lessons it conducted in the big cities showed that bike owners became more security-conscious after taking the lessons.

"Someone specialized in locks shows people how to unpick them. This teaches people how to better secure their bikes," a spokeswoman for Dutch bike group Fietsersbond said on Wednesday.

About 700,000 bikes were stolen in the Netherlands last year, home to 18 million bikes. Bikes are the most common form of transport in the Netherlands.

Fietserbond will tour the country, offering its bike theft lessons which has so far helped students moving to the cities like Amsterdam and who usually poorly secure their bikes, the group's spokeswoman said.

"If freshmen move to the city with their bikes, it is a party for bike thieves," she said.

The government launched a campaign on Wednesday, urging people to report bike theft to the police and make a note of their bike's identity number."

Lock It Up.

Not to comment on my friend's bike incident yesterday but just to remind everyone out there. Lock it up good, ok? 

This pic (courtesy of the failblog.org) can also be conveniently used to comment on web forums... 

Bike Thieves In Kumpula, Helsinki.

After yesterday's happy news there's today's sad news. It's like the ying/yang thing, I suppose. 

My colleague Giac AKA Interflug just called me five minutes ago that his bike had been stolen from their court yard in Limingantie Kumpula, Helsinki, during the night. The bike was locked to a bike stand and all. Giac is all fucked up now because he cannot get to work, which sucks. 

His bike was almost brand new-looking nice sporty Tunturi geared mixte ATB bike, it's also pretty recognizable as it was a blue & white Markkinointi & Mainonta Special Edition and there aren't that many of those around. The bike has a bright yellow Selle Italia seat and Shimano components. 

Kumpula is a peaceful community with lots of wooden houses with kind of a slightly bohemian vibe so stealing bike's from a closed yard behind the house during the night hints that the bike was probably not stolen by drunken teenagers needing a ride. 

There are no photos but if you see a bike fitting to that description somewhere, let us know. Beer reward is offered if the bike is found. 

Also, don't forget to check out Giac's 'Jack and his amazing ukulele / Giacomo e il suo incredibile ukulele' MySpace page and listen to his cool original songs (with titles like 'The Day That Britney Died'...) that he performs with an Ukulele. Well, now he has a reason to write a melancholy song about his bike that's gone. 

Kuwahara Robbery In Kauniainen

This local news flash has noting to do with FG or SS bikes as such but still, here we go:

The Espoo Police Department is looking for people who might know something about a 20-something dude with a black hoodie who was seen riding the pictured Kuwahara MTB in Kauniainen last saturday.

Why, you might ask? Is it because those cheap 1990s MTBs suck, or because being a 20-something dude with a black hoodie, he should have been riding a tad bit more trendier/contemporary type of bike?

No, that's not the answer. It's because he rode the bike to a Jewellery store at the Mall in Kauniainen's centre, went in, threatened the staff with a hammer, robbed the place by grabbing dozens of expensive gold chains worth of thousands of Euros and ran away. 

And yeah, he ran instead of riding the Kuwahara which was left behind. And of course the cops have no leads on the stick-up kid, only the blue bike. 

But maybe he needed cash to buy a new Bianchi Pista?

If You See This Bike in Helsinki - It's Stolen

This fixed gear conversion was stolen last night in Helsinki, at the corner of Freda and Erikinkatu sometime between 01-02 am. 

It's an old Peugeot road frame painted plan black, British Hubs - track hubs, Mavic rims,  Nokian Skinwall 28 Roadie tyres, Nitto stem, Shimano 600 crankset, Specialites TA chainwheel, Campagnolo seatpost etc. 

Let's help the bikes owner out, if you see the bike, kill the rider in the head, ok?

This also marks the beginning of the cycling season in Helsinki in a not-so-nice-way as it is the first fixed gear or single speed bike reported stolen on local cycling forums this spring. I don't know what was the deal here but always remember to to lock your bike onto something when locking up, do not just lock the bike up, so no free locking, ok? 

Bike Thieves in London Town: Emma's Lovely Vivalo Stolen...

I've been checking out the London Fixed Gear and Single Speed forum a lot lately and it seems like bike theft is a big issue in London, unfortunately. There's been so much of that nastiness going on lately that some people put up a blog reporting stolen bikes, here. 

What's even more scary is the fact that it appears that the crooks stealing bikes in London are often highly professional and efficient with proper tools and knowledge, not just some sad sick junkies trying their luck. 

If you want to read more about how to protect your bike AND to see how easily the real pros will nick your ride, look here. That stuff is genuinely disturbing. 

Here's the latest sad example from London: 

"Stolen from outside Tesco on Bethnal Green Rd, London, was locked up and only left for 2 mins. Bike description: 50cm Vivalo Gloss Black with rainbow sparkles, Dura-Ace sealed NJS headset, Nitto Stem, Riser's with Grey Champ grips, Grey seatpost with EGKS written on the side in black marker pen, Kashimax black saddle, Dura-Ace cranks (90's), MKS clips(odd one is a medium one is a large), Single black toe straps, Shimano Bottom Bracket, Front wheel- Dura Ace hub radial laced with black spokes on a white Velocity Deep V, Rear wheel- Dura-Ace hub Laced 3x with silver spokes on a Black Velocity Deep V. Note: one of the hubs has been custom coloured, instead of a navy blue background with white shimano dura-ace text... it is a white background with black text, (inversed) the owner is very sad, this is a one of a kind bike. She will be so happy if she can get it back. Thanks in advance.

If you have any information on this bike email:
stolenbikelondon@gmail.com"

Let's hope she gets her lovely ride back ASAP.