Calgary's recovery rate for stolen bikes improving, police say

When Tom Brodrovics's $10,000 mountain bike disappeared from his Calgary garage, he thought it was gone for good.

Stories about stolen bikes don't usually have a happy ending, and his had been taken without a trace.

"It doesn't feel good … when you see something that you use every day, and there's a lot of feeling attached to it, and it's gone," he said.

Brodrovics called the police, but he was already resigned to the bike's fate, and remembers thinking: "We're not going to ever see it again."

But on Monday, about a month after it was taken, Brodrovics received a call from a constable who described a bike they'd found — and it was his.

"I cannot thank [him] enough," Brodrovics said.

In previous years, the chances of getting a stolen bike back were slim in Calgary. Back in 2019, for example, police were returning only 12 per cent of stolen bikes to owners.

Now they say the recovery rate for stolen bikes has more than doubled to 30 per cent, and they're using proactive investigations to find them.

Proactive investigations

More than 1,000 bikes have been reported stolen to Calgary police so far this year, and many other thefts go unreported, Const. Phil Tabelon said.

But Tabelon said the bike unit team recovered 55 bicycles this month alone.

"If they're reporting the bike stolen, it makes it easier for us to reunite owners," he said.

"But we will still do our due diligence and try to get the bikes back [when we find them]."

That due diligence includes asking people about their bikes and inquiring about abandoned ones — many people unknowingly buy a stolen bike, Tabelon said, while others find one that has been ditched.

Meanwhile, bike shop stickers and serial numbers can provide puzzle pieces. Police call the stores to find out who purchased the bike before getting in contact with them.

They also comb social media pages dedicated to stolen bicycles.

"[Owners] don't have faith that they're going to get their bikes back, but we're always on the lookout," Tabelon said.

The Calgary Police Service has partnered with Bike Index, a website where people can register their bicycles for free, to aid in returning stolen bikes to their rightful owners.

Underlying causes

While stolen bikes are being recovered in higher rates by police, some in Calgary's cycling community say it will require more than enforcement to eliminate bike theft to begin with.

Molli Bennett, the president of Bike Calgary, said underlying causes need to be considered. She said it's important to understand why people might be choosing to engage in behaviours that contribute to social disorder.

"[So] what we can do as a society, and as a city, to make sure those folks are supported and … they don't feel like they have to turn to that option," Bennett said.

Cycling is booming in Calgary, Bennett said, but theft presents a barrier for participation.

"Bikes are incredibly important to people who use them — and when a bike is lost, no matter what the value, it can feel really personal and upsetting," she said.

"For some, that's their mode of transportation, and a loss of that means a loss of access to transportation."

Encouraging widespread, secure and accessible bike parking can help prevent it, she said, and increasing foot traffic helps, too.

"The more that we activate our spaces, and the more livable and walkable our communities become, the more people are out and about and the more vibrant the streets are," she said. "And that is proven to reduce theft."