Cambridge residents turning to social media to help solve bike thefts
CAMBRIDGE — Recent sales at The Hub Bicycle Shop have taken a bittersweet turn for Cliff Vanclief, a sign he suspects is an indication of a growing and troubling trend.
“We’ve noticed a decrease in sales,” said the owner of the busy Hespeler bike store. “But we have seen an increase in lock sales — and higher-end lock sales. Five years ago, if I had a $150 lock on the wall, it would sit there. We’ve probably turned a dozen of those this year.”
There’s a common denominator when it comes to why people are suddenly investing in pricey locks, said Vanclief.
“They’re afraid their bike is going to get stolen.”
Bike theft, both one-offs and the organized variety, is nothing new for the longtime bicycle entrepreneur and biking enthusiast. It’s one of the main reasons the Cambridge business stopped buying used bikes eight years ago.
The shop also works to assist police in identifying stolen bikes and their rightful owners.
This summer, however, Vanclief, who is also running as a candidate in Ward 1 in October’s municipal election, has observed an uptick in theft stories, and he is paying particular attention to an explosion in related chatter on local Facebook groups.
Residents are taking to social media to share photos of bikes stolen — and found — in hopes of forming a collective network of theft detectives.
One Cambridge woman recently snapped a photo of a man attempting to cut the chain off a bike locked up at a bus stop at the intersection of Water and Dundas streets and posted it to Facebook.
The image was immediately tagged with comments by others who reported seeing the same man attempting to steal bikes from other locations, including Cambridge Memorial Hospital.
None of this comes as a surprise to Vanclief.
“The hype is out there,” he said. “We get a call in the summer almost daily from a customer looking for a receipt or a headsup and ‘Hey, my bike’s been stolen, if it comes into your shop.’”
Local resident Julie Currie is hoping to measure the breadth of the bike-theft issue in Cambridge by documenting the number of bikes stolen as part of an informal survey of crime-related incidents. She has invited people to tag her on Facebook to share their stories.
“People have been reaching out to me about anything,” she said, “whether it’s about a stolen bike, something that they’ve witnessed, or just to vent about how it’s affecting them.”
Currie is planning to create a new Facebook group to focus on her documentation, with her findings to be shared with local politicians and police.
Although bike theft may be a hot-button issue in the community, the most recent statistics suggest bike thefts in Cambridge are down compared with last year.
According to Waterloo Regional Police Service, there were 136 bike theft reports from January to Aug. 10, down from 156 over the same period last year.
Currie suggests the numbers aren’t accurate as too few people report bike thefts to police, believing the issue isn’t a priority for police. It’s why she maintains theft victims should do their part and report bike thefts.
It’s a point echoed loudly by Vanclief, who encourages bike owners to diligently document bike ownership by taking a photo and recording serial numbers.
“A lot of people are saying the police won’t do anything, but they will if you have proper reporting procedures,” he said. “They need that information in order to arrest somebody.”
The police service encourages bike owners to follow its bike safety Snap’N’Save program, which recommends taking a photo of themselves on their bike and a second photo of the bike’s serial number.
“This helps ensure that if a bike is stolen, we have a better chance at identifying its original owner,” explained spokesperson Cherri Greeno. “It’s very difficult for us to validate the owner without any identifiable markings, such as a serial number.”
While Vanclief sympathizes with victims of bike theft, especially because his own bike has been stolen in the past, he does offer a word of caution when it comes to increasing vigilantism in the community. He also discourages making assumptions about whether someone is riding a stolen bike based on superficial first takes.
Cambridge’s homeless shelter, The Bridges, has been a continuous target of blame for a recent rash of stolen bicycles.
“Just because people are homeless, or they look homeless, doesn’t mean they’re on a stolen bike,” said Vanclief.
“And I think there’s too much finger-pointing going on targeting The Bridges."
At least one person recently posted to social media stating she visited The Bridges to demand a stolen bike be returned. She said her bike showed up at her home a short while later.
Some assertive efforts at getting bikes back via vigilante efforts may have been successful; however, it’s not a method that comes highly recommended by police.