Bait Bikes and Twitter Fight Bicycle Theft

I read a story in the NY Times while sitting in the window of the cafe, it was about how bike trails and encouraging biking is bringing another unwanted class of bike enthusiasts…thieves.

But bikers and cops are fighting back, using baited bikes to catch bike theft ringleaders, and using Twitter and Facebook to help people get their bikes back. Take Lance Armstrong, a Twitterer, who after his prized bike was stolen in Sacramento had it turned into police after posting an alert on Twitter. It isn’t as easy in Boston, where out of 238 bikes registered with police on Facebook and a mere two or three have been found.

I remember meeting a travel executive who commuted to work in Copenhagen. He loved it, but he admitted he was on his 15th bike, after the previous 14 had been stolen.

A method that has been successful has been creating ‘bait bikes’ that use a $7,000 gizmo like a LoJack.  In Sacramento County, up to 200 felony arrests can be credited to using this bait.