Cyclists feel the pain as thieves pilfer bikes A4

Bill Bolstad is nothing if not persistent.

Sadly though, so too are Regina’s bicycle thieves.

Bolstad had his bicycle stolen over the weekend. It’s a fate quite a few of the city’s bikes have met — if advertisements seeking their return are any measure.

But for Bolstad, this is the third time he and one of his cycles have unwillingly parted company.

“It’s just never-ending,” Bolstad told me this week.

Almost three years ago, the Regina Leader-post caught up to Bolstad when he’d suffered his second bike theft. Quite a brazen affair, the bike — which he’d bought only three weeks earlier after someone had swiped the first one — was locked to a city parking sign.

Alas, someone actually unbolted the sign from its base to quite literally lift both the bike and its lock.

An avid summer cyclist who only resorts to a car in winter, Bolstad quickly bought a replacement two-wheeler.

“A bike is everything to me,” he says.

And he enjoyed that bicycle until Saturday. After an early morning cycle, Bolstad secured it to an iron railing outside his downtown condo. Given his experience, he’d gone to goodly lengths and expense to find a lock that he was assured would be much tougher to crack. Indeed, he believed his latest lock would withstand anything short of a side grinder, which he hoped would make sufficient noise to attract attention and deter any thieves.

“I was sure this lock was totally secure,” he says.

But when he exited his home later that afternoon, his bicycle was gone. He did subsequently discover the $100 bicycle lock, which appeared to have been snapped by bolt cutters. Oh yeah, the thief also left behind Bolstad’s bike helmet.

Since then he’s made inquiries at sporting goods and lock stores in a quest to find more security — and peace of mind. He’s still checking, but may have found one lock that at least seems to carry an anti-theft guarantee of some financial compensation if the bike secured by it goes AWOL.

When he was checking at one business Tuesday, the customer next to him related how he’d also been victim of a string of bike thefts.

“They’re just out of control,” Bolstad adds.

A frustrated Bolstad notes not even so-called secure bike compounds are impenetrable. “People have a fair bit of nerve.”

Indeed, even the city’s purveyors of law and order aren’t immune

Earlier this year, as a result of an access to information request filed by Leader-post reporter Arthur White-crummey, Regina police disclosed that the outdoor compound where it stores recovered stolen bicycles had also been hit by burglars — three, separate times, with 18 bicycles pilfered between October and February.

“When the first one occurred, it certainly got our attention and there were some security measures undertaken,” a spokesperson told White-crummey at the time. Alas, much like Bolstad’s experience, they proved insufficient.

Regina police were unable to provide numbers Tuesday on this year’s bike thefts or how they compare to other years. But peruse the Regina ads for lost items, and you’ll find a few hardluck stories.

“This bike was the last thing my Mom bought me before she died. I really would like it back,” reads one.

One family tells of a nine-yearold who had his bike chained up at school. “He’s devastated to learn people steal stuff if you leave it here overnight.”

Or how about this one, again about bikes stolen from school bike racks where they were supposedly secured: “The kids just got these bikes last year and are very upset.”

In yet another post, the brand new bicycle was stolen from a locked van. “Perp damaged van and stole orange phantom mountain bike.”

Another former bike owner wrote: “Please keep a look out as it’s my only means of getting to work.”

If the rash of bike thefts equated to an outbreak of fitness enthusiasm or a spate of carbon footprint reduction, I might be able to find some sort of silver lining. But I think this is more about the silver — and thieves looking to turn a quick buck by pedalling hot bikes.

“I’d be sure curious to know where all these bikes go,” says Bolstad.

Shame on anyone who picks up that steal of a deal.