Re:Electric Bike, Stupid Love of My Life
by wccrawford on Sunday July 16, 2023 @12:16PM
(#36748612)
I don't know what my local police are like for bike theft, but given how poorly they handle theft from inside cars, I have no hope that they can do anything about any kind of theft, ever. They even had a security camera video of the person, knew who it was, and even where they frequently are, but flat-out told us they weren't going to do anything because it was pointless and they'd just be back at it soon.
We weren't missing much from that theft, but some of our neighbors were.
And so it is extremely unlikely that I'd leave my cheap bike anywhere, let alone my electric bike or scooter, no matter how well-locked it was. It 100% goes with me, or I don't take it at all.
Wow! With a police attitude like that, the criminal will definitely "be back at it soon".
Name and shame the region.
> theft of catalytic converters very seriously
Cops don't care about it, virtually nowhere in the World
The same goes for bikes in most cities. Strangely enough they seem to care about theft of jewellery more, even if a bike is more expensive.
But what they're missing is that the SFPD has always been like this for bicycles. A while back I had only locked my front wheel and my frame, so some dedicated thief stole the back wheel. I walked in to the nearest police station with the remains of my bike. The cop on the desk asked why I was there. "To report a crime," said I, holding up the bike. He looked befuddled, asking if I needed it for an insurance report or something. "No, I thought that the police might want to know about a crime." He shrugged and took the report, but clearly did not give a shit.
If cops took bike theft as seriously as car theft (which they should given that in both cases it can be somebody's primary transportation) I think we'd see a lot more e-bike usage.