Cyclists steering own investigations into stolen bikes

Frustrated cyclists in Ottawa are taking matters into their own hands to retrieve their stolen bikes.

From Facebook groups to user-generated maps and Kijiji stings, many bike owners say they're tired of spinning their wheels waiting for police to solve the thefts, and are instead relying on their own devices to get their property back.

Bruce Goodman's 15-year-old daughter recently found her cable lock cut and lying where her Giant Escape bike had been secured outside the Shaw Centre.

He filed a police report, but also scoured Kijiji, where he found an ad for the bike — easily identifiable because of a broken bell, after-market metal fenders, and a small piece of paper stuck to the top of the frame —  posted just two hours after it was taken.

Posted his own Kijiji ad

Goodman replied to the ad, posing as a potential buyer.

"I sent a message to the alleged thief saying that I'd be interested in purchasing that bike," he said.

The next day, having received no response, he posted his own Kijiji ad using the same photo the suspected thief had used, informing anyone who may have bought the bike that they were in possession of stolen property, and inviting them to contact him.

"Within three hours, I had been contacted by two people who had had some contact with the thief, and the person who had actually purchased the bike."

His daughter's bike was returned later that day and Goodman ended up giving the buyer an old bike he wasn't using as a replacement.

But not everyone has been that lucky.

"I was heartbroken," said David Martin whose $2,200 orange and black Norco Threshold was stolen from his downtown condo garage in January. "I went to every pawn shop here in downtown Ottawa."

He said his bike had been double-locked to a post with thick cables, and he wonders how the thief got by his building's security undetected.

"To carry cutters for that size of cable, it's not in your back pocket," Martin said.

Nearly six months later, his bike is still missing.

"I'm just optimistic. I have a feeling that one day I'm going to see it up on somebody's balcony just sitting there, or in a backyard or left somewhere."

Online efforts

The Facebook group STOLEN Bikes Ottawa is dedicated to posts about stolen, lost and found bikes. There are new entries nearly every day, and the group has grown to more than 600 members.

Gabriel Solomon created a user-generated bike theft map after his fiancée's Kona Jake the Snake bike was stolen while they were having coffee in the Westboro area last year. The map has been posted on the group.

"I have a feeling her bike is gone. My fiancée's bike is probably in some other bigger city. But other people's bikes might turn up, and hopefully they do."

Solomon decided to create the map after he was unable to get information from either Ottawa police or the city on hotspots for bike theft in the city. 

Contributors to the map can report where and when their bikes were stolen, and provide a detailed description.

Some bikes recovered, police say

Ottawa police know one thing about bike thefts: early summer's the hottest time for hot bikes.

"The start of the summer is always the biggest peak time for bike theft," said Const. Chuck Benoit. 

Benoit said police have a dedicated team of officers to investigate thefts, but none who focus exclusively on bike theft. 

"We investigate all complaints that come in. Do we find a lot of the bikes that are stolen? We do find some."

Officers occasionally conduct sting operations and search resale websites such as Kijiji and Craigslist, Benoit said. Any bikes that are recovered are stored by police until they're claimed. ​

Benoit couldn't say how many bikes are stolen each year, however, or what percentage of those bikes are eventually recovered by their rightful owners.

A Kijiji Canada spokesperson told CBC News it uses "industry-leading technology and a dedicated community support team, in addition to help from an active and supportive community of Kijiji users who flag inappropriate postings" to avoid the sale of stolen property.

The company said it receives only a handful of reports about stolen bikes across Canada per month, which equates to a fraction of a per cent of the number of ads on the site.

As for Goodman, he said he hopes people looking to buy bikes online remain aware of where those bikes may have come from.

"We all go on to Kijiji because we like a good deal. But buyers need to be ethical and they need to keep their eyes open for stolen goods."